From Here to Serenity
by Bastard Snow
Summary: Buffy’s fall through Glory’s portal took her somewhere nobody had ever imagined. Now, it’s up to Willow and Xander to get her back.
1. Prologue

Title: From Here to Serenity  
Author: Bastard Snow  
Rating: PG-13

Summary: Buffy's fall through Glory's portal took her somewhere nobody had ever imagined. Now, it's up to Willow and Xander to get her back.

Disclaimer: I don't own either of these.

Author's Notes: Much, much thanks to Drake, without whom this story would not exist. Also, obviously, thanks to Joss Whedon for coming up with two universes that have nothing to do with each other. Makes it a challenge to make them have everything to do with each other.

A/N 2: Thanks also to Sal and Invisionary for providing vital assistance in the editing of this story.

Feedback: Yes, please!

* * *

Buffy Summers grasped her sister by the shoulders. They were standing on top of a rickety tower, a portal opening ten feet away. A portal that needed blood to close.

"Dawn listen to me," she said. "Listen."

Dawn looked up at her sister, her eyes wet with tears. "I love you. I will always love you. But this is the work that I have to do. Tell Giles… tell Giles I figured it out. And, and I'm okay."

Dawn's tears flowed more freely.

"And give my love to my friends," Buffy said. "You have to take care of them now. You have to take care of each other. You have to be strong."

Lightning crackled behind them as the portal grew larger.

"Dawn, the hardest thing in this world… is to live in it. Be brave. Live. For me."

She stroked the side of Dawn's face, kissed her on the cheek, and turned. Buffy ran to the edge of the platform, leapt, and dove into the portal closing it for good as her sister and friends – her family, watched.

After a minute of stunned silence, Dawn slowly, carefully made her way down the tower to join her sister's friends. She reached the bottom of the stairs, her cheeks stained with tears, and refused to look at the pile of rubble and debris just below the tower. The pile where her sister's was certain to lay broken and bloodied.

She looked up to the confused faces of her sister's friends. They were all crying, even Spike. Anya, held aloft in Xander's arms, wiped the tears from her cheeks and shook her head.

"I don't understand," Anya said. She pointed to the debris pile. "Where'd she go?"

Dawn had asked the same thing mere months ago, when her mother died. She'd never gotten an adequate answer, but the general consensus was 'somewhere better.' Steeling her nerve, she turned to look at the pile of debris.

It was empty.

----------

End Prologue


	2. Chapter 1

Title: From Here to Serenity  
Author: Bastard Snow  
Rating: PG-13

Summary: Buffy's fall through Glory's portal took her somewhere nobody had ever imagined. Now, it's up to Willow and Xander to get her back.

Disclaimer: I don't own either of these.

Author's Notes: Much, much thanks to Drake, without whom this story would not exist. Also, obviously, thanks to Joss Whedon for coming up with two universes that have nothing to do with each other. Makes it a challenge to make them have everything to do with each other.

Feedback: Yes, please!

* * *

"Mornin' Cap'n," said Kaylee. She was standing in the kitchen of Serenity making herself a breakfast of egg-flavored protein.

"Good morning," said Malcolm Reynolds. "How's my ship holding up?"

Kaylee patted the ship's hull. "Serenity's doin' just fine, cap'n. She's holding together."

"Good to hear," said Mal. "Wash give us an ETA yet?"

"Not to me," said Kaylee with a sigh, as she stirred her faux-eggs. "I'm just the lowly mechanic."

Mal smiled at her and patted her on the shoulder on his way to the bridge. "Ain't nothin' lowly about a mechanic. 'Cept maybe when you're on the floor fixin' things."

"Hey, are we picking up any passengers on Persephone?"

"More'n likely," said Mal.

"I like it when we pick up passengers," Kaylee said.

"Yeah, me too," said Mal. He glanced at the hallway where he saw Simon entering the kitchen. "Always works out so well."

Mal left the kitchen and jogged past the crew quarters and up to the bridge.

Wash greeted him when he arrived. "Morning, Mal," he said. "We're on course and due to set down in about an hour."

Mal stood over Wash's shoulder, nodding for a minute, his arms crossed. "Okay," Mal said, eventually. "Glad I got my captaining out of the way for now. I'll be in the hold, doin' a last check of the cargo."

"Sure thing," said Wash. "Oh, if you see Zoë…"

"Yeah?"

Wash paused, and shook his head. "Nah, nothing. Thanks."

"You sure?" Mal asked, pointing back the way he came. Things were often tense between Zoë and Wash largely, Mal knew, because of his own relationship with her. While he wasn't inclined to take blame for a friendship that had developed and become solid throughout the War of Independence, he wasn't opposed to, on occasion, helping smooth the rocky road of marriage a little. "I'm headin' out there. She's bound to be around here somewhere."

"That's okay, thanks. Just… I'd like to talk if she's got a second."

"Okay," Mal said, with a shrug. He whistled his way back down the hallway, and down a level to the cargo hold. Mal got caught up in rechecking the goods, and securing all the crates that he didn't look up for another half-hour, when a gruff voice interrupted his thoughts.

"Mal, why do we gotta take on more passengers?"

Mal looked up and saw Jayne, his… well, his mercenary, standing on the catwalk looking angry.

"Passengers pay the bills," Mal said, turning back to the cargo. "'Sides, new people make life interesting."

"Since when did you want an interesting life?" Jayne asked.

Mal shrugged, and looked up at Jayne again. "I woke up in a good mood. You got Badger's new address?"

"Yeah, the little scum sucker ponied it up, finally. He was worried about us 'tarnishing his new image' or somethin' like that. Doesn't realize he ain't nothin' but a two-bit fence."

"The man certainly has an inflated estimation of his personal prestige," said Mal.

"Thinks he's all fanciful, too."

"That he does," Mal said, inspecting his work. "That he does. We're planet-side soon. Make sure you got everything ready."

"Zoë's got the paperwork," Jayne said, "and I've got my gun."

"Then we're all set."

Jayne nodded. "You need me, I'll be in my bunk."

"That," Mal muttered to himself as he turned back to his cargo, "is something I don't want to know about."

A couple of minutes later, he finished securing the cargo and waited out the rest of the trip in the lounge. He was soon joined by Simon.

"I understand we're to be taking on more passengers once we touch down."

"Kaylee does spread news quick, don't she? Yeah, I reckon we are. What of it?"

"I just… I'm concerned about the security of it, is all."

"Security?" Mal asked. "Why, Simon. You wouldn't be worried that we'd let someone turn you and your sister over to the Feds, now, would you?"

"Understand," Simon said, "I'm not saying you want it to happen. You, and the rest of your crew, have shown more than once that you're willing to risk… well, your lives to keep that from happening. And I'm grateful for it. I just can't help but think that having passengers is simply asking for trouble."

"I understand your worries, doctor," Mal said. "But we got bills to pay, and anyhow, Kaylee's pretty good at judging people."

"No, she's not," said Simon. "Kaylee only sees the best in people, it's one of her most endearing qualities. To tell you the truth, I'd feel, well, safer if Zoë or Jayne were screening passengers."

Mal smiled. "Kaylee'll do just fine, doc. Don't worry about a thing."

"Simon?"

"What is it, River?" Simon asked.

"The ants are marching two-by-two, but they've lost their queen and don't know how to get home." River raised her arms above her head and twirled around. "They'll watch the water run and tell everyone what they saw."

Simon glanced at Mal, who shrugged his ignorance. Mal admired the man's temper. Any sister of his was nuts like that, he'd have been much less forgiving than Simon ever was. Of course, Mal thought, he didn't have a crazy sister and he could be pretty foul tempered as it was.

"That's good, River. Why don't you go see what Inara's doing?"

River didn't respond, but turned and skipped away down the corridor.

"Doc," Mal said, "you are a very patient man."

When the ship finally landed, the entire crew gathered in the kitchen.

"Wash," Mal said, "get fuel as we need. Jayne, Zoë, you're with me. Doctor… you and your sister stay on board, don't get seen by nobody."

"Right," Simon said. "Go to a planet, stay on the ship, watch the people outside with a sense of longing."

"That's the spirit," Mal said enthusiastically, clapping the young man on the back. "Kaylee, you do that thing where you get people to come on board. Shepherd, you're free to do as you will, of course, just be back in a few hours. Don't wanna be leavin' nobody behind."

"Okay, Cap'n," Kaylee said, smiling. "What about Inara?"

Mal shook his head. "Exactly when was the last time I had say over anything she did? Just make sure she knows when to be back." Mal set off with Zoë and Jayne to find Badger's new digs.

----------

A tall young man with dark hair and about a day and a half worth of stubble worked his way through the crowds at Eavesdown docks, hauling a cart full of luggage and leading a much shorter young woman.

"You're sure you can do this?" he asked her.

"I am," she said, swiping some of her red hair from in front of her face. "I can do this. I have my star maps, and I have everything we brought with us from…. I can do it."

"I believe you," he said. "I just wanted to make sure." He surveyed the area. "Now we just have to find a likely ship."

"I could –"

"No," the guy said. "I know you said it's not a problem, but I want there to be no question. I can find one."

The young woman nodded. "Okay," she said, patting him on the arm. "I trust you."

The man led them around the docks, looking carefully at ships and crews, destinations and cargoes. He looked at the condition of the ships, the faces of the crews, and asked questions as he saw fit.

And then he chose based on intuition.

"That one," he said, pointing to a ship that looked more than a little beat up.

"Why?" she asked

"It's got character," he said, "but it still looks solid. It's headed away from the core, and the captain…"

"Is wearing a brown coat," said the woman. "You always did have a soft spot for the underdog."

"That's because it was usually me," he said.

"Plus, you think the girl out front is cute."

"This is the truth," he said, smiling at his friend, "but it doesn't make my other points any less valid."

The woman nodded. "Okay," she said. "Let's go."

They approached the ship with a little trepidation, but the girl's warm smile calmed their nerves.

"Hi," she said. "Y'all headed to Boros, or thereabouts?"

"Just looking for some time on the rim," the man said. "Get away from things."

"Well, we're headed out that way," the girl said, standing from her folding chair. "And we've got a good crew, a shipboard doctor with a well stocked infirmary, and comfy rooms for anyone as can pay."

"It sounds lovely," said the woman.

"Well, I'm Kaylee," said the girl from the ship, placing a hand over her chest. She then waved back towards the ship. "And this here's Serenity, and she's the smoothest ride in the galaxy."

"Nice to meet you," said the man. "I'm Xander Harris, and this is my traveling companion, Willow Rosenberg."

"Oh," Kaylee said, surprise in her voice. "Okay. Well, great. Why don't y'all bring your stuff on board, and we'll see about getting you settled. The cap'n just left, but he and the rest will be back soon."

"Great," Xander said, smiling. If the whole crew were as nice as Kaylee, he thought, it would be a very enjoyable trip.

----------

"Who's this?" Mal asked. He, Jayne and Zoë had just returned from what could, by comparison with previous experiences, be considered successful negotiations with Badger. Jayne and Zoë were currently overseeing transporting the cargo.

"Cap'n," Kaylee said, "this here's Xander Harris and his… um… companion… Willow Rosenberg. Folks, this here's the captain. Malcolm Reynolds."

"Captain," Xander said, offering his hand to the man. Mal took and shook his hand.

"Companion, huh?" he asked, nodding to Willow. "Isn't that nice. Guess there's no question about adequate funds, then."

"Um. Okay," Xander said.

"Where are you headed?" Mal asked. They had listed a couple of destinations on their manifest, and the different prices for each destination.

"Out," Xander said. "Away from the core."

Mal looked Xander straight in the eyes. "You all got Alliance troubles?"

Xander shook his head. "Just need to get away from it all for a little while."

"Huh," said Mal. "Don't we all. Well, I guess this'll make Inara happy. Or less mean, maybe."

"Cap'n, Inara's not mean," Kaylee said. "She's just been stressed, is all."

"What will make who happy?" Willow asked.

"Oh, you allow her to speak," Mal said with a little chuckle. "How quaint."

"Excuse me?" Xander said, confused.

Mal and Kaylee exchanged a quick, almost surprised glance. "Uh, nothing," Mal said, though Xander got the sense he was missing something. "Kaylee'll show you to your room, then –"

"Uh, just one?" Xander asked.

Mal paused. "You want separate rooms?"

"If it's not too much trouble," Xander said. "Why, is that more expensive?"

Mal glanced at Kaylee, who shrugged her ignorance. They'd never met a man with a personal companion who didn't sleep in the same room with her, at least in anything remotely resembling public lodging. It was a sign of status.

"No," Mal said, after a short pause. "No, that's fine. Um. Anyway, Kaylee'll show you to your rooms. We'll do a little meet and greet with the crew once we're outta the world. Do you carry a gun?"

"I have one," Xander said, kicking one of his bags. "Not expecting to use it."

"Good," Mal said. "Well, I've got to help Wash get the ship ready. I'll check on you folks in a little while."

Xander nodded and picked up his bags and Willow's. They followed a few feet behind Kaylee.

"What," Willow said, leaning close to him, "do you suppose that was all about?"

Xander shook his head. "I have absolutely no idea."

---------

"That's Zoë, my second in command, and her husband Wash, the pilot," said Captain Reynolds. "Over there's Doctor Tam, and his sister River."

"Please, call me Simon," the doctor said with a smile. It was a nice, comforting smile, and Willow felt a little better for it. But not that much.

Willow felt like she was on trial. It was silly, she thought, because it was just an introduction to the crew and the other passengers. Kaylee seemed nice, certainly. And Simon's smile made him appear kind, as well.

Just about everyone else seemed to be judging her, though. Especially Jayne, the big one with all the muscles, whose role on the ship she wasn't quite sure of. Captain Reynolds had said something about public relations, which everyone but her Xander and her had laughed at. Jayne didn't seem to be judging her so much as sizing her up for a meal.

Willow slid about a half-step behind Xander, an action which seemed to annoy the captain, his second-in-command Zoë, and Shepherd Book, the preacher guy with the Bible. But Xander was bigger than her, and while she was now much more confident than she had been in high school, she really didn't like the looks they were giving her.

"You'll also, I'm sure, be meeting Inara," Mal said, drawing Willow's attention back to his introductions of the crew. "She's sort of our ambassador here, when she chooses to grace us with her presence. We do have sit down meals. Next one's at about 1900. Other'n that, there's not much to say. You're welcome in the hold, the mess here, or the lounge outside the infirmary when you want, but don't go on the bridge without an escort, 'less it's an emergency."

Xander nodded. "That sounds good," he said, smiling. But, looking around, nobody else except Kaylee and the doctor's sister was smiling, and Kaylee's looked a little forced.

Mal nodded.

"Well," Xander said, "if you all don't mind, we'll just go make ourselves comfortable for a little while."

"Sure," Mal said, extending his arm towards the stairs.

"Have fun," said Wash, with dancing eyebrows and a little wave of his hand.

As they left the kitchen, Willow would swear she saw Zoë elbow Wash in the side. And she was pretty sure, when they were on the stairs, she heard a bunch of them laughing.

"Xander," she said, "I'm not sure we picked the right ship."

"Come on," he said, leading her into his cabin. "Let's talk in private."

Willow nodded and sat on his bed. Xander sat on the floor against the wall.

"They were definitely giving you some looks I didn't like," he said.

"I noticed," said Willow.

"You think it's not safe?" he asked.

Willow smiled. "No, it's fine," she said. "I mean, I'm almost certain I can stop them from doing anything, if they wanted to. But if they are mean, well, it'll just make stealing their ship that much less taxing on my conscience."

"Kaylee's really cute, though," Xander said.

"Oh yeah," Willow said, smiling some more. She found, since she had started dating Tara, that there were some things she could talk to about Xander now that they had never talked about, or at least, had talked about in different ways. Girls, for instance. Willow got all the boob talk, now. Turned out, she just needed to be introduced to the right pair.

Willow frowned.

"Thinking about home?" Xander asked, joining Willow on the bed. He put his arm around her shoulders, and she leaned into him. "We'll get back to them," he said. "As soon as we find her."

"I know," Willow said. "It's just tough. Of course, you know that."

Xander nodded. "I do indeed," he said. "The love of a woman is a wonderful thing, but they often don't take it well when you say you're leaving for an unspecified amount of time… in search of another woman."

"Tara wasn't so worried about that last part."

"Anya's been insecure about my relationship with you guys since we started going out. She was getting better, but I don't think this helped." Xander shrugged. "I'll deal with it when I get back, though. This had to be done."

Willow leaned up and kissed Xander on the cheek. "Thank you for coming."

Xander nodded. "Face it," he said. "You're stuck with me."

Willow hugged her best friend tighter. After a minute, she let go. "You know," she said. "It's weird that you're engaged."

"That it is," he said, nodding his agreement.

"Okay," she said, standing up. "I need to get my laptop, start it calculating."

"Won't the battery drain?" Xander asked.

"It would, but I'm going to tap into the ship's power supply and keep it charged."

"You can do that?" Xander asked. "I didn't know they made a U.S.-to-spaceship AC adapter."

"They don't," Willow said. She whirled her hand and a couple of sparks shot into the air. "That's why we have magic."

"Just make sure you don't blow up the ship," he said as she stepped out of his room. Willow walked across the hall and into her own room. In her luggage was her new laptop – well, new by her standards. Here, it was ancient. And since it was in working order, that might make it priceless, but Willow was only using it for one thing: to find their way home.

Willow booted up her computer and performed the energy spell to keep the battery charged. That done, she brought up the program she and Jonathon had written for this specific purpose. Using magic again, she transferred the data from the star chart she and Xander had bought on Persephone. She manually pinpointed a few stars and star clusters that were identifiable in the chart from home and the new one. Her computer, if the program worked correctly, would be able to analyze the differences and pinpoint the difference in location.

Then, of course, it was just a matter of figuring out where on the new chart they were, where they needed to go, and then actually getting there. Willow sighed. This would have been much easier if this damn backwards, western space-faring culture still knew where Earth was.

----------

End Chapter 1


	3. Chapter 2

Title: From Here to Serenity  
Author: Bastard Snow  
Rating: PG-13

Summary: Buffy's fall through Glory's portal took her somewhere nobody had ever imagined. Now, it's up to Willow and Xander to get her back.

Disclaimer: I don't own either of these.

Author's Notes: Much, much thanks to Drake, without whom this story would not exist. Also, obviously, thanks to Joss Whedon for coming up with two universes that have nothing to do with each other. Makes it a challenge to make them have everything to do with each other.

Feedback: Yes, please!

* * *

Simon shook his head. "I don't believe that girl is a companion."

"So, what?" Mal asked. "She's just some whore and he's shinin' up a turd?"

"I don't think so," Simon said. "But I couldn't quite… it was odd."

"It was," said Book. "She held herself confidently, but still seemed to look to him for protection. And there was affection there, more than one would expect between a man and a kept woman."

"Guys!" Kaylee said. "There's no need to –"

"Mal!" Wash yelled from the bridge. "You gotta come see this."

Mal got up from his chair and headed down the hall to the bridge. "This better be good. We were having a nice little character discussion."

"I don't know what it is," Wash said, tapping a small display. "We've got a power drain."

Mal looked over Wash's shoulder. "Where's it coming from?"

"That's the thing," Wash said. "I can't pinpoint it. All I can tell is that we're losing power. Not a lot. It's minimal, actually, it shouldn't really affect us at all. But I've never seen anything like it before."

"Wash, check the outgoing band. Might be our new friends recognized the good doctor."

Wash punched a couple of buttons on his console, shaking his head the whole time. "Nothing," he said, after a moment. "No outgoing transmissions, none incoming, either. I originally thought it might be a faulty wire, but it's too steady for that."

"When did it start?" Mal asked.

"Maybe ten minutes after the thing in the kitchen?" Wash said. "That's the first time I noticed it, anyway."

Mal nodded. "That means it's either Jayne, Zoë or our new guests. Everyone else is still in the mess."

"I think we can rule out Zoë," Wash said. "She wouldn't do something like this, not without telling anybody."

"And Jayne ain't exactly what you'd call an engineer."

"Well, I didn't want to be the first to say it," said Wash.

Mal sighed. "I had really hoped new passengers wouldn't be as much trouble as the last ones."

Wash scratched his head in thought. "Well, nobody's been shot, we haven't run afoul of any feds, and as far as we know, neither of them is crazy."

"They're hurting my ship."

"Actually, not really. The draw is really small."

"Okay," Mal said. "I'm gonna go check in on our guests."

Mal headed down to the guest quarters, mentally flipped a coin and knocked on the door on the right side of the hallway.

"Can I help you, Captain?" Willow asked.

Mal smiled, and tried to peer around her. "I'm just checking to see if you have everything you need."

"I do," she said. "Thank you."

"Ah," he said. He was still trying to peer around her.

"Looking for something?" she asked, her arms crossed over her chest.

Mal looked back at her. She seemed a lot more confident now that she was alone.

"It's just, we've got this thing," he said, "where somebody's draining power from the ship."

"Is it dangerous?" Willow asked.

"Not really. More of a nuisance."

"Well, I can't help you," she said, stepping back and allowing him a full view of her room. "As you can see, I've got no wires or anything."

Mal looked at the black, rectangular box that was on her bed. "What's that?" he asked.

She turned to see what he was pointing at. "It's an antique," she said. "It's a data input device that they used to use on Earth That Was. I had it upgraded."

"From Earth That Was?" he asked, his eyes wide. "Lao tian ye! That must have cost a pretty penny."

She smiled. "It was worth it though."

"How do you power that thing?" he asked.

"Like I said, I had it upgraded. It gets its power just like any cortex reader does."

Mal nodded. "All right. Well, just wanted to make sure. You understand."

Willow nodded.

Mal pointed his thumb over his shoulder, across the hall to Xander's room. "He awake?"

Willow shrugged. "So far as I know. He's not drawing off power, though. Wouldn't know how to start."

Mal chuckled and shook his head. "You two don't exactly have the most normal relationship, do you?"

Willow frowned. "What do you mean?"

"It's just lots of men with a personal companion try to keep 'em a mite subservient."

Willow smiled. "Xander couldn't do that if he wanted to. He's not built that way."

"Ah," Mal said. "Treats you good?"

"He's my best friend," Willow said. "He treats me like an equal."

"Damnedest thing," Mal said. "All right, thanks."

Mal slid the door shut and turned around. He shook his head again and considered the door before him. Behind that door was a man wealthy enough to have a personal companion, but who wanted to 'get away from it all' in a Firefly. Mal loved his ship, there was no doubt about that, but most of those uppity types would feel dirty just looking at it.

But even more strange was how he acted. He had a companion, a sign of status on any planet, but he didn't keep a tight reign on her. Got her a room of her own, seemed to want to protect her, and had her convinced he treated her equal. And that they were friends. Whatever scam this guy was pulling, he was good at it.

Mal hated him.

But, he had paid, and unless he was actually doing something wrong – like stealing power from the ship – Mal was inclined to let whatever the guy did pass without comment. It would be unprofessional not to. He knocked on the door.

"Yeah?" Xander called from the inside.

Mal slid the door open and saw his passenger lying on the bed, reading a book. Whoever this guy was, he sure as hell had some serious money. Books were expensive. That bible little River'd ripped up had probably cost the shepherd's abbey an arm and a torso.

"What're you reading?" Mal asked.

"Snow Crash," said Xander. He set his book down on the bed and sat up. "It's about… language and computers and hydrogen bombs and pizza delivery. Can I help you?"

"Checkin' that you got everything you need. We're a full service transport here on Serenity."

Xander smiled. "I think I'm good, thanks."

"Okay," Mal said. "Say, you wouldn't happen to be stealing power from the ship, would you?"

Xander laughed and shook his head. "No. I leave all the… technology stuff to Willow. She's good at that sort of thing."

"Oh, so you just have her do your menial labor for you? How kind." So much for not commenting.

"Excuse me?" Xander asked.

"No, nothing," Mal said. "That's what women are there for, right?"

Xander stood up to his full height. "Excuse me?" he said again, rather more darkly this time.

"Look, I'm sure whatever arrangement you two have cooked up is, shall we say, mutually beneficial," Mal said patronizingly. He leaned in closer. "But just between us guys, ain't nothin' like puttin' a whore in her place."

The blow came so quickly that Mal never saw it. Didn't, in fact, feel it until he was already on the ground.

"Ow!" he yelled. And yeah, it hurt. But it was more the surprise. Been a while since somebody had gotten the drop on him. Couple of months, at least. He looked up and saw Xander looming over him, looking meaner than Jayne almost ever did. He heard the door behind him slide open.

"Xander!" Willow yelled, looking at Mal rubbing his jaw on the ground and the rage apparent in Xander's eyes.

"I don't know what your problem is," Xander said, not taking his eyes off the captain, "but say something like that again and you and me are gonna have real words."

"Touch him again and you're gonna have real holes," said a hard but feminine voice from the stairs. Mal looked over and saw Zoë with a gun leveled right at Xander. "You all right, Captain?"

"Just fine, Zoë, thanks," said Mal.

"What's going on here?" Willow asked.

"That's what I'd like to know," said Zoë.

"He hit me!" Mal said, pointing to Xander as he stood.

"And what'd you do to provoke him, sir?" she asked.

"Nothing!" said Mal.

"He called Willow a whore," Xander said.

Mal glanced at Willow, who looked distinctly offended.

"Well, ain't she?" asked Zoë.

"No!" yelled Xander and Willow.

"That's right," Mal mocked. "The term is 'companion.'"

Xander and Willow glanced at each other. "Uh," Xander said. "What?"

"Companion." Mal waved his hand at Willow. "You know, the woman you pay to sleep with you?"

Xander and Willow locked eyes for a second, and Xander fell back into his room, laughing. Willow's face had turned beet red.

"I'm missing something," Mal said.

"You ain't the only one." Mal turned and saw Jayne standing at the end of the hallway with an apple in his hand.

"How long you been there?" Mal asked.

"Long enough to see you get laid out by the kid," said Jayne. "Now that's entertainment."

"Captain," Xander said, having returned to the hallway, "I don't pay Will to sleep with me. I don't pay anybody to sleep with me."

"But –" Mal started.

"And anyway," Willow said, having toned down to a bright pink. "He's not my type."

"Who is?" Mal asked.

Willow blushed again, and Xander nodded his head toward Zoë.

"Ohhhhh," Mal said. Zoë holstered her pistol.

"But you called her your companion," Zoë said, walking up to them.

"As in traveling companion," Xander said. "She's my best friend. The only time we sleep together is if we pass out on the couch."

"But you had to know," Mal said defensively. "You called her your companion. What was I supposed to think?"

"Honestly," Willow said, "we um… lived a sheltered life."

"Meanin'?" Jayne asked.

"We didn't know that companion meant… that."

Mal, Zoë and Jayne were silent for a moment.

"So," Mal said to Xander, "when I called her a whore… I wasn't just being crude, I was also wrong?"

Xander nodded.

"Well," Mal said, "sorry for the offense. You throw a good punch."

Zoë laughed.

"What?" Mal asked.

Zoë shrugged. "You deserved it. Inara's gonna love this one."

----------

"Yeah, yeah," Mal said. "Laugh it up."

"I am, can't you tell?" Inara asked, holding her stomach.

Inara was a glamorous young woman who had, apparently, been in her personal shuttle while everybody thought Willow was a whore – and wow had Xander not expected that. Talk about ignorance being bliss.

And now, they were faced with a woman who really was a whore – well, a companion, whatever the distinction was – and neither Xander nor Willow were entirely sure how to react. Mostly.

"Guh," Xander muttered.

Willow leaned closer to him and whispered, "My thoughts exactly."

Xander smiled, but he still wasn't quite used to that. He loved Willow, and fully accepted her lifestyle. He knew Tara was a great girl, and sweet as all get out, and honestly he'd not seen Willow as happy. But jeez, it still weirded him out a little to talk with her about girls. He'd get used to it, of course, and it was kinda hot. But just a little weird.

'A little weird,' Xander thought. 'I'm in a space ship, however-the-hell many years in the future, in another dimension, on a mission to rescue my other best friend from the grips of what appears to be demon-filled world of death. The fact that this even registers is ludicrous. I'm getting way too used to this crap.'

"So," Mal said, turning to Xander, "what are you two, really?"

"Uh," Xander said, "we're best friends."

"Since we were five years old," said Willow. She shrugged. "We like doing things together."

"Right," Mal said, "but what are you?"

"I'm not sure I follow," Willow said, frowning.

"Well, where are you from that you didn't know what a companion was? I mean, it's a kind of a well known thing."

"Uh…"

"I mean," Mal said, "you're goin' to get away from it all, but if you don't know that… can't have been that much to get away from."

Xander glanced at Willow, who shrugged. Xander sighed. "The truth is," Xander said, "that when Willow told her family about her… tendencies... they kind of disowned her. She didn't have anywhere to go. So we uh… borrowed some items, pawned a few, and well, here we are."

Mal turned to Willow. "Your folks gonna be lookin' for you?"

"I doubt it," Willow said.

"Seems like you took some awful expensive stuff," Mal said.

"They can afford it," Xander said. "Trust me."

Mal nodded. "All right," he said. "Well, I'll leave you folks to get acquainted. I've gotta go check on Wash."

Mal left the mess and left Xander, Willow and Inara to 'get acquainted.'

"So," Xander said. "Do, uh… do companions often travel on ships like this?"

Inara smiled at him. "It's not uncommon," she said. "Companions often book passage on cargo ships or transports if they want to relocate."

"You don't seem to be relocating," Willow said.

"No," she said as River danced into the room. "I prefer a more mobile lifestyle. Being able to leave somewhere that's been unfriendly has its advantages."

"But then you can't ever settle down," Xander said. "How do you know where home is?"

Inara looked around them. "Serenity is my home."

Xander was suddenly aware of River standing right next to him, her face mere inches from his. He turned his head slowly so that he was face to face with her.

"Um," he said. "Hi."

River's head came a little closer. Her hand whipped out, and she began petting Xander's head. "She's like a dog left at the pound. Trapped, but wants to go home. You can help her."

"River…" Inara said, rising from her chair.

"It's okay," River whispered. "I won't tell them about the demons."

Inara grasped River softly by the elbow. "Sweetie, does Simon know where you are?" she asked.

"Simon's busy," River said, looking up at Inara.

"Doing what?"

"He's trying to initiate a mating ritual with Kaylee in the lounge."

Xander snorted with laughter. River leaned in closer to Inara and spoke in a stage whisper. "It's not working."

"That's… a shame," said Inara. She was making a valiant attempt to keep a straight face.

"It's his own fault," River said, scrunching her nose up. "He's not doing it right."

Inara turned to Willow and Xander. "If you two will please excuse me, I should attend to River."

Xander nodded, and watched – and noticed Willow watching – as Inara glided away, River walking along beside her.

"Did she say what I thought she said?" Willow asked once the two were out of earshot.

"Did you think she said she wouldn't tell them about the demons?" Xander asked.

"Uh huh."

"Then yeah, she really did."

"How did she know?"

Xander shook his head. "I don't know. What was that stuff about a dog at the pound? Maybe she's a little crazy."

"Yeah," Willow said. "But so were the guys who could see the Key."

----------

End Chapter 2


	4. Chapter 3

Title: From Here to Serenity  
Author: Bastard Snow  
Rating: PG-13

Summary: Buffy's fall through Glory's portal took her somewhere nobody had ever imagined. Now, it's up to Willow and Xander to get her back.

Disclaimer: I don't own either of these.

Author's Notes: Much, much thanks to Drake, without whom this story would not exist. Also, obviously, thanks to Joss Whedon for coming up with two universes that have nothing to do with each other. Makes it a challenge to make them have everything to do with each other.

Feedback: Yes, please!

* * *

"Xander, there's something banging and it isn't stopping."

Xander roused himself from his slumber. Sure enough, there was somebody knocking at the door.

"Go see what it is?" Anya asked.

Xander smiled. He remembered a time when that wouldn't have been a question. Xander slid out of bed, only to have Anya pull the covers tightly around her naked body. He pulled on his sweatpants before padding out of the bedroom barefoot, shutting the door behind him..

He opened the front door and found Willow, drenched to the bone and looking lost.

"Will?" Xander stepped back from the door in an unspoken invite. As always, he breathed a small sigh of relief when she entered. Xander headed for the bathroom. "Let me get you a towel."

Thunder boomed outside.

When he returned, Willow was pacing back and forth. He wrapped the towel around her shoulders, thankful for something that would cover her chest, so he wasn't tempted to stare at it. Her shirt was very wet. Xander flicked on some lights.

"Here, sit down," he said, guiding her to the couch. "What's going on?"

Willow looked straight into his eyes. "I found her."

Xander felt his eyes widen, and he was struck speechless.

Anya opened the bedroom door. "Xander?" She still had the comforter wrapped around herself. "Who is it?"

Xander and Willow looked up at her as one, and then back at each other.

"Oh, it's you. Can't you wait until the morning?"

"Ahn, honey," Xander said, not taking his eyes from Willow's. "You should put some clothes on."

Anya scowled. "Do I have to?" She sounded very disappointed.

Xander turned away from Willow and looked up at his fiancée.

"She found Buffy," he said. Anya looked down and saw his face.

She nodded. "I'll be out in a minute."

Xander watched her retreat back into the bedroom, then stared at his best friend for a few moments. He shook his head to clear his mind. "How?"

Willow glanced down at the floor. "Dawn," she said.

"Dawn? What do you mean?"

Anya walked out of the bedroom wearing a pair of Xander's boxers and a long t-shirt. She sat next to him on the couch. The rain outside the apartment grew heavier.

"Dawn," Willow said. "She knew we were looking for her, and she wanted to help. So, of course she can help. But I just had her looking things up, you know? No actual spellwork."

Anya nodded, knowingly. "Dawn can be quite resourceful."

"Right." Willow shivered a little and pulled the towel more tightly around her shoulders. "She showed me an entry she found in one of the books I had thought wasn't going to be helpful. It was about dimensional barriers. Then she showed me another entry, about magical connections between family members."

"You mean Argula's Third," Anya said.

"Right," said Willow. "Which, it just didn't occur to me in this situation."

Anya shook her head. "No reason it should, it's generally used to aid a loved one in finding their path in life. Like a job, or a pursuit of love, or the occasional hostile takeover. I don't see how it could be applied here."

"I know," said Willow.

"Glad somebody does," said Xander. "You guys lost me about a mile back."

"Argula's Third is the third in a series of really useful spells created by this guy back in the 10th century," said Willow.

Anya agreed. "It's actually what convinced William the Conqueror to invade England."

Willow looked very interested. "I didn't know that."

"It was very exciting," said Anya. "The Battle of Hastings gave me some very interesting ideas on pain, and suffering. Revolutionized the entire field. Argula's greatest legacy was the last successful invasion of England. Well, military invasion. McDonald's has done a pretty good job."

Willow shot Anya a terse smile and continued. "Anyway, I read the text of the spell, and the truth is that it can work. It says to help a loved one find their path, but it doesn't specify what kind of path. It can show us how to get her home."

"I thought there were prohibitions –" Anya started.

Willow shook her head. "Warnings. Not prohibitions. I can work around them."

"Wait," Xander interjected, "but, for Buffy to find her path, for the spell to work, wouldn't she need to be here? For us to tell her?"

Willow smiled and again shook her head. "That's what's great about the spell. The person it's being used for doesn't need to be present."

"But how –"

"Because it's a spell of personal responsibility," Anya said. "Advisors, who were often cousins of royalty, used it all the time, like with William the Conqueror. You think the French actually knew something about war? No, his advisors cast the spell, and then told him what to do. It would, I assume, work the same way here."

"Yeah," Willow said. "It basically gives me visions of what Buffy's supposed to do, and then it's my job to tell her."

"What if you don't?" Xander asked.

"If you don't, then nothing," Willow said. "Then you don't tell the person. They might not find their path."

"That's not entirely accurate," Anya said. "The spell balances by causing some fairly serious erratic behavior immediately, for about a day. Later, if the person doesn't deliver the message, there's a strong feeling of something left undone, and even some pretty heavy guilt. It goes away after a while."

"I didn't know that, either," Willow said, frowning. "How long of a while?"

Anya shrugged. "A couple weeks." Lightning tore across the sky, illuminating the night. Anya loved thunderstorms "Wow! You'd have to be crazy to be out in that."

Xander looked out at the thunderstorm, frowned, and looked at Willow's still-drenched form. "Yeah," he muttered, connecting some dots in his mind. "Crazy. Or, uh... Hey Willow?"

Willow leaned forward and kissed Anya on the lips. Anya pulled back in surprise as more lightning lit up the sky. The lights went out as the electricity failed.

Xander sighed and his shoulders sagged. "You didn't happen to already do the spell did you?"

He couldn't see it, but Xander knew she was grinning at him, innocent as could be.

----------

"Let me get this straight," Giles said, pinching the bridge of his nose. The entire gang, including Spike, gathered at the Magic Box to discuss Willow's findings. "You cast the spell, and found Buffy on Earth in another dimension?"

"Uh huh," Willow said. "It's more technologically advanced than this one. I can't tell by how much."

"Are we talking cars that fly?" Xander asked, doing his best to ignore the spectacle.

"And weird looking guns," said Willow. "And something that looked like a space station."

"Don't we already have one of those?" Xander asked.

"Yes, but this one seems to have constant service from the surface. And it's big."

"And how," Giles asked, "does this translate to you residing on my ceiling?"

Willow grimaced. "I can't help it?"

"It's Argula's Third," Anya said.

"Ah," Giles said. "Leaving out, for the moment, the question of how that particular spell would help, one would assume, then, that Willow did not know of the dangers inherent?"

"Nope," said Anya.

"You should've seen us trying to get her over here," said Xander. "It was a scene."

"When did she cast the spell?" Giles asked, looking to Tara.

"Hey, I'm right here, you know," Willow said indignantly. From the ceiling.

"I'm choosing to ignore that fact," said Giles.

"It w-was yesterday," Tara said. "Around nine?"

"In the evening?"

Tara nodded. Giles looked at his watch and sighed. "Another ten hours until it wears off."

"What does this all have to do with finding Buffy?" Spike asked.

Willow floated down from the ceiling. "Well, I can go into the specifics later, but basically the spell didn't just do what everyone thought it did. There was a subtlety in the wording that allows for different use."

Spike crossed his arms. "But you know where she is. How does that get her to us?"

"It doesn't," Willow said, smoothing her hair out, and taking a seat next to Tara. "But it's the first step. What we need to do is open a portal to that Earth, and then find Buffy."

"And that's where I come in," added Dawn. "Or, my blood."

"Will Dawn be in any danger?" Giles asked.

Willow shrugged. "I don't know. Which is why we haven't gone ahead. I… it's pretty clear I need to do more research."

"Quite," said Giles. "But this is promising. It is a lead."

"That means books," said Xander. He stood and climbed the ladder to the magical texts.

"Yes," Giles said. "Books. The Imperium Codex. The Diary of Ovid. Whisten's Treatise on Naturally Occurring Thaumatic Intervals. The Journals of Tolzar."

"What volumes?" Xander called down.

"All of them," said Giles. "Also Lazenby's Directives."

Xander grunted. He brought down an armful of books, then went back up the ladder for more. There were twenty-three tomes in all.

"Geez," said Dawn. "That Tolzar guy sure had a lot of journals."

Xander surveyed the load. "This is going to take a while."

Everybody picked a book and started reading.

----------

The Scoobies researched for two solid weeks, during which time Willow became less and less helpful. The guilt the spell laid on her kept her in varying states of disarray and inconsolability.

The twenty-three volumes the group started with turned out to be just that – a start. Late one night, when the research session had migrated to the Summers home (they had unconsciously stopped calling it Buffy's house), and Willow's guilt had begun to fade, Giles found what they were looking for. It was a method of opening portals to specific dimensions.

All they needed was a catalyst. Something that could open holes in the fabric of reality. It wasn't, Giles said, something you just found lying around everyday.

"Well," said Willow. "That kind of depends on how you look at things."

"I don't follow," Giles said.

Willow looked at the ceiling. Giles followed her eyes, and her meaning occurred to him.

"Of course," he said. "But can we –"

"It's Buffy," Willow said. "Dawn's been nothing but eager to help."

"Yes, but helping never involved donating blood," said Giles.

Willow shrugged. "She was willing for Argula's Third. This won't take much more than that."

Giles nodded. "Yes, of course. I imagine she'll be… most eager. We should gather everyone first thing in the morning, and explain to them what has to happen. Decide things like –"

"Who's going to go?" Willow asked.

"Precisely," Giles said.

"Okay," Willow said. "Can you get home okay?" She and Tara had moved into the Summers' home to live with Dawn for a while.

Giles smiled at the young woman. "I'll be fine," he assured her. Giles left and drove home, feeling good about the morning.

When morning eventually came, Willow and Giles gathered the whole Scooby gang at the Magic Box and laid out their findings. Everybody was very pleased, but not quite sure how to react.

"So," Xander said, "what does this mean? We open up a portal on that Earth and just kind of hope Buffy jumps through it? 'Hey, there's a portal, let's see where it goes?'"

"It's not very likely," Anya said.

"Our, um, intention," Giles said, "is to locate Buffy, open the portal near her and… well, and send someone through to get her."

"If it doesn't take more than a few minutes, I can hold the portal open," Willow said. "Or, well, I'm pretty sure I can."

"However, in the event that it takes longer, we can have a pre-scheduled time to re-open the portal. That way, whomever goes through can be there waiting, and just bring Buffy back," Giles said.

"Two problems," Xander said. "How do we know time runs at the same speed there?"

"Why wouldn't it?" Spike asked.

"Buffy once traveled to a hell dimension where a hundred years passed there during one day here," said Dawn.

"Sounds like fun," Spike muttered.

"So?" Anya asked. "How do we know that?"

Giles and Willow looked at each other. "Well," Giles said. "I suppose we don't."

"Okay," Xander said. "And my second problem, who's going through?"

"That was one of the things we were going to talk about," said Willow. They all looked at each other for a few seconds, each cataloguing the others' strengths and weaknesses

"Me," Xander said after a minute.

"Xander, no!" Anya said.

"Ahn, it makes sense," he said.

"Oh, and why, exactly, is that?" she asked.

"Well… a couple of things. I'm uh… I'm pretty good thinking on my feet," he said. "Not, you know… not the best, but not bad. Also, I can hold my own in a fight. Not, you know, like against a demon, but pretty good. We need everyone else to protect the Hellmouth."

Anya frowned. She wanted to argue his points, but found it difficult. Willow and Giles were needed on the Hellmouth, especially since Buffy was gone. Tara, while a lovely girl, had virtually no chance of interacting with strange, new people in a confident and forthright manner. And Anya, who had no actual intention of volunteering, wouldn't be able to care for herself as well in a fight, if the situation came to that, as Xander would.

Spike, of course, was liable to burst into flame if he stepped onto another planet. There was no telling what time of day the portal might open onto.

"Also," Xander added, "I've read way more sci-fi."

"Oh, and how does that matter?" Anya asked indignantly.

"Adaptation," Giles said. "It is likely that, with more… familiarity with technology similar to that which he will see, Xander would integrate into a more technologically advanced society better than any of us."

Anya frowned. "I hate logic."

"It is my enemy also." Xander rubbed the small of Anya's back. "But it sometimes comes in handy."

"And anyway," Willow said, "it shouldn't be for more than a few minutes. And if it is more than that, not more than a day at the most. And if I do the spell right, he'll be with Buffy the whole time, so it's not like he'll be in danger."

"Unless Buffy's in danger, which she has this habit of being," Anya sighed. "But you're right. Xander is the best person to go. That doesn't mean I have to like it."

Xander pulled Anya towards him and kissed the top of her head. "Thank you, baby."

Spike clapped his hands and rubbed them together. "All right then. Let's get this show on the road."

Willow nodded, and handed a list of ingredients to Tara, who started gathering them from around the store, and turned back to the group. She looked at their youngest member and smiled. "Dawn," she said, "we need some of your blood."

----------

End Chapter 3


	5. Chapter 4

Title: From Here to Serenity  
Author: Bastard Snow  
Rating: PG-13

Summary: Buffy's fall through Glory's portal took her somewhere nobody had ever imagined. Now, it's up to Willow and Xander to get her back.

Disclaimer: I don't own either of these.

Author's Notes: Much, much thanks to Drake, without whom this story would not exist. Also, obviously, thanks to Joss Whedon for coming up with two universes that have nothing to do with each other. Makes it a challenge to make them have everything to do with each other.

Feedback: Yes, please!

* * *

Willow looked out over the barren desert, shielding her eyes from the glare. "Where'd you say this was, again?"

"This town here's Hancock," Kaylee said. "Cap'n had a fella offer him some work doin' something, and well, we go where the work is. Y'all sure were nice about lettin' us detour before hittin' Boros, especially since the mix-up with the captain."

The two of them stood on the cargo ramp on Serenity, overlooking a small town that appeared to be down on its luck. Xander was about a hundred yards away in dirt field, stretching his legs and taking a breather from being cooped up on the ship.

"Well, we weren't in any hurry. And really, that whole thing was sort of our fault, anyway."

"Oh, don't say that," said Kaylee. "Maybe y'all were a little out of touch, but the cap'n had no right sayin' what he did, even if you were a companion. It's a respectable profession, legal and everything."

Willow felt the need to change the subject. " What kind of work do you guys have here?"

"Oh, you know. Cargo transport. Salvage. That type of thing."

"Which are you doing now?"

Kaylee shook her head. "Not sure, yet. They've got some sick people over in Paradiso, a town pretty near here, suffering from Bowden's Malady. Might have something to do with that."

From inside, a radio crackled and Mal's voice could be heard. "Wash! Wash! Start 'er up, we're comin' in hot!"

Kaylee clapped her hands together. "Come on, it's time to head back in. Get ready for takeoff."

"Xander!" Willow yelled. Xander looked up, and she waved for him to come back. He didn't understand, though, and waved back at her before going back to picking at some plants. Willow saw a dust cloud quickly approaching.

Xander turned to look in the distance. A gunshot rang out from the cloud, and Xander stumbled backwards and fell over a rock.

"Xander!" Willow yelled. She ran down the ramp and was about to head for Xander when he shot back up to his feet and high-tailed it for the ship.

He wasn't fast enough. The captain, Jayne and Zoë rode up on horses, horses Willow was fairly certain they didn't have when they left. They almost passed Xander by on the way. Jayne rode on, but Mal and Zoë turned their horses and began firing behind them, giving Xander time and cover to get back to the ship.

Unfortunately, they were outnumbered, and a couple of the people chasing them rode past, in chase of Jayne. He was carrying a large satchel, and holding it very delicately.

"Get back on the ship!" Kaylee yelled, pulling Willow's attention back to her. "They'll get him back safe."

Willow turned back to the scene in front of her. A horseman was riding up on Xander, too fast. Just as the horse caught up, Xander dropped to the ground and rolled to one side. Willow whispered a few words, and the horse spooked and threw its rider.

The man rolled up off his back, stumbled forward and swung a lazy fist in Xander's direction. Xander easily dodged the blow, grabbed the man's arm and thrust his elbow into the man's face. Blood spouting from his nose, the man fell to the ground screaming.

"Here!" Jayne spat, tossing his package to Kaylee. He whirled on his horse and turned back towards the fray.

"Git!" He yelled at Xander as he passed. "Back on the ship, you damn fool!"

Xander ran towards the ship, but the second horseman – who Jayne had failed to see – reared up between him and his destination. Xander raised his fists as if to fight, and the man leveled a shotgun at him.

Xander's eyes shot wide open in surprise, and he looked behind the horseman. The guy turned in his saddle, and Xander sprinted up and grabbed the guy's gun, twisting it away from him as he tried to pull it out of the man's hands.

The horseman fired the shotgun, forcing Xander to release the too-hot barrel.

"Come on," Willow whispered.

Xander reached the gun again, but the man pulled it away from him. Xander grabbed the saddle strap, unhooked it and yanked, sending the man to the ground. He dove under the horse and climbed on top of the man just as he again raised his shotgun. Xander dove to the right as the blast went off next to him. Xander's shoulder looked like it was torn to shreds.

"No!" Willow screamed. She tried to run out to him, but Kaylee held her back. In the distance, the others were riding back to the ship.

Xander hit the ground and spun, bringing his foot up and kicking the man just as he began to rise. Xander's foot hit directly on the man's mouth, sending him back to the ground. Xander rolled up, crawled over and planted his knee on the man's chest. With his uninjured arm, he slammed his fist into the man's face three times, knocking him unconscious on the final blow.

Willow pulled out of Kaylee's grip and ran to Xander's side, the mechanic not far behind.

"Xander!" Willow cried, throwing her arms around him.

"Careful!" Xander said, wincing as the enthusiastic redhead attached herself to him.

"Come on," Captain Reynolds said as the others rode up. "We need to get on board."

He was sporting a graze across his arm, and Zoë's chest looked like it had been shot. The blow had, however, apparently been absorbed what looked a sort of extremely light body armor.

Willow shook her head forcefully. "We're not moving until you tell us what just happened."

"Listen!" said Mal. "Those guys have friends, and lots of 'em, and better armed. If we don't get to movin' now, we might not move again, ever, so I suggest you and your friend get back on the boat."

"I think we deserve –"

"Will," Xander gasped. His skin was paler than it had been mere moments before, and his arm was soaked in blood. "Answers later. Gunshot wounds now. Doctor onboard."

Willow frowned, but stayed silent and started helping him back to the ship.

----------

"Willow," Xander said. He looked into his best friend's eyes.

"What is it, sweetie?" she asked, firmly grasping his hand.

"They have better painkillers than we do."

Willow smiled at him and kissed his hand.

Simon put finished bandaging Xander's shoulder, then walked around the bed so both Xander and Willow could see him. "You should be all right in a few hours. The dermal mender has stopped the bleeding, and it'll take some time for the muscles to re-knit, but most of the shot was very shallow. Other than that, some soreness, and some short-term loss of movement, I foresee no problems."

Willow smiled at him gratefully. "Thank you. Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go eviscerate your captain."

"Okay," Simon said with a small smile. "But please put a tarp down first, the floor is so hard to clean."

"Will," Xander said, squeezing her hand.

"Yeah?"

He smiled at her. "Give 'em Hell."

Willow grinned back at him, released her grip on his hand and left the infirmary. She stalked up the stairs and towards the kitchen, but paused when she heard raised voices.

"You said it was going to be a milk run," Mal said angrily. "You said that there wouldn't be anybody guarding it."

"I know what I said, Mal," replied Jayne. He sounded defensive.

"Well then do you mind telling me what the hell all of that was about?"

"Look, I only know what I been told. Ain't my fault if the information's wrong."

"Well what am I supposed to do now? I got a passenger that's been shot, and they're gonna want answers. We've already got a couple of fugitives on this boat, you think we need any more attention than that? Do you know how easily they could ruin everything?"

"It ain't my fault, Mal!" Jayne insisted.

"Well who do you think we should blame, then?"

There was a pause. "Badger?"

Willow heard a chair shift, and when Mal spoke, it was much quieter, more intense.

"Badger?" Mal asked. "You accepted a job from Badger, and you didn't say anything to me?"

"He just mentioned it might be a thing. In passing."

"Zoë, I… I…"

Willow stepped up into the kitchen and cleared her throat, drawing their attention.

"How's your friend?" Mal asked.

"Simon said he's going to lose some motion for a little while, but he should be fine."

Mal nodded. "Good. We had no business bringin' you into that, and we apologize."

Willow crossed her arms and set her resolve. "What, exactly, was that? I mean, what kind of idiot captain goes out and gets –"

"We're thieves," Mal interrupted.

Willow deflated. "Oh. Well, that ruined my little diatribe. But, hey, still bad!" she admonished, wagging her finger at them.

Mal rolled his eyes, but Zoë put a hand on his shoulder to calm him down.

"Cap'n doesn't take well bein' lectured to," Zoë said.

"I didn't lecture," Willow denied..

"He ain't patient, either," Zoë explained.

Mal took a deep breath. "Listen, we're sorry what happened to your friend. As compensation, we're willin' ta…" he paused, sighed, and continued. "Willin' to refund your money for the trip, on the condition the two of you don't go callin' the Alliance on us."

Willow frowned at him, then her eyes lit up. "Ooh!" she exclaimed. "Better idea!"

Mal's eyes narrowed. "What?" he asked.

"Uh, well, you know how, kind of, you owe us?"

"Yeah…"

"Well, what if, instead of us not paying, you agree to take us somewhere else?"

Mal crossed his arms. "Where?" he asked.

Willow hedged. "Um… somewhere that's not on your charts?" She grinned innocently.

"If it ain't on the charts, how're we gonna get there?"

"Because I can tell you where to go."

"Sorry," he said, shaking his head. "Been taken in by one too many cute redheads. No deal."

"It's Earth-That-Was."

Everybody turned to see Xander, his arm in a sling and pain on his face, standing at the top of the stairs, with Simon beside him.

"I tried to stop him," Simon explained. "But he was determined."

"This from the man who once jumped twenty feet through the air onto an Alliance agent. What do you mean 'it's Earth-That-Was?"

"Just that," Xander said. He pushed himself away from the bulkhead and stepped into the room, walking over near Willow. "We're offering you the location of the planet in exchange for passage to and from. The from being with one extra passenger."

Mal looked skeptical. "Uh huh. And, supposing we did agree to this, what would be our payment?"

"You mean other than us not telling the Alliance that you're thieves?" Willow asked.

"Yes. We'd be takin' an awful lot of risk, here."

"You get all the books I have on board, and any artifacts we find."

"Any?" Mal asked.

"Any. As long as we find our friend."

Mal looked at them silently, not giving away his emotions.

Zoë made meaningful eye contact with her captain. "Can we have a word?"

Mal nodded, and led Zoë and Kaylee up into the cockpit, shutting the door behind them.

"You don't help with the decisions?" Xander asked, easing himself into a chair.

"Oh, I'm not much of a criminal," Simon said. "Nor am I often involved with the crime around here, although I did plan and pull off a good job a while ago. But that was mostly to help River."

"What's… I mean, why did she need help?" Willow asked.

"She's a little, um… off. The 'job' was to gain access to medical facilities so I could analyze her brain, she was… well, the Alliance did bad things to her mind. Made her… crazy."

Xander and Willow shared a look of horror as they both flashed back to Glory and all the crazy people she made in Sunnydale. Including Tara.

"What?" Simon asked.

Willow tried to cover. "Oh. Uh, that's um… horrible."

Simon agreed. "It is. But that look was more personal than just empathy."

Xander cleared his throat. "A um, a friend of ours. Something sort of similar happened. Bad memories."

Understanding blossomed in Simon's eyes, and he nodded. "You have my sympathies," he said. "How did that turn out?"

Willow grinned proudly. "She got better."

"Do you mind if I ask how? I'm having no luck with my sister. The medications don't seem to work for more than a few weeks, and I'm really at a loss about how to proceed."

"Not really sure," Xander said. It wasn't specifically a lie, because he had no idea what Willow had done other than to stick her fingers into Tara's and Glory's heads. "But it was… sudden. Kinda like magic."

Simon smiled at them. "Well, unfortunately I'm limited to the physical realm."

They smiled at him, and waited for the captain to rejoin them.

----------

"Cap'n, you can't honestly be thinking about this," Zoë said, once they were out of range of the others. "How many people have struck out lookin' for Earth-That-Was, never to be heard from again? How many have gone out lookin' to make it rich, and came back broke, or not come back at all?"

"I know," Mal said.

"Not to mention," Kaylee put in, "if we don't know where we're goin, we don't know if we're gonna have enough fuel. An' if somethin' happens to Serenity, not that I think it will, she's a good ship, but if it does, we're like to be so far away from traveled routes that ain't nobody can help us."

"I know," Mal repeated.

"What are we talking about?" Wash asked as the three of them entered the bridge.

"Goin' to find Earth-That-Was," Zoë said.

Wash relaxed and leaned back into his chair. "Oooh, that sounds like fun. I've never inexplicably disappeared before. It's something I always wanted to do. So really, what are we discussing?"

Mal looked at him harshly. "Going to find Earth-That-Was."

Wash's smile disappeared. "You're joking."

"Sometimes even I ain't sure. Seems our passengers think they know where it is, and they're willin' to pay to get there."

Zoë tapped her foot impatiently. "I mean it. You're not actually thinking of this, right?"

Mal frowned. "Sure would be a thing if we found it, though."

Zoë rolled her eyes. "At least consult the others. They may not want to be part of a zoo like this."

Mal considered this. "I'm not much for making things volunteer, but I'll admit this is a bit of an extraordinary circumstance." He reached up to the intercom and pressed a button. "All Serenity crew members, please report to the bridge. This includes everybody not picked up on this visit to Persephone."

"Subtle," joked Wash.

"It's what I'm best at," Mal said with a smile.

A few minutes later the crew had crowded into the bridge, and Mal addressed them.

"All right, here's the issue at hand. Those folks we picked up claim they got a location for Earth-That-Was, they wanna go find it. They want us to go with 'em. For payment, they'll avoid turnin' us in to the Alliance, give us all the books they got on board and any artifacts we find once we're there."

"Any artifacts?" Jayne asked. "They don't want 'em?"

Mal looked a little skeptical. "They say not."

"Not sure I trust a man ain't got some greed," said Jayne.

"Apparently, they're searching for a friend," Zoë informed him.

"Which is pretty sweet," Kaylee pointed out. "Makes it a nice thing to do."

Simon smiled at her. "My only worry is whether it would be safe for River. What rumors I have heard say that the Alliance strictly guards any and all pathways towards Earth-That-Was, although I've never been given an explanation as to why. However… it would give me pause."

Book cleared his throat. "I would be forced to vote against this. Searching for Earth-That-Was has long been a dangerous pastime, and many people have died. In fact, I can tell you that any such journey would likely result in a conflict with the Alliance."

"Can you tell me why?" Mal asked.

The Shepherd shook his head. "Wish I could. And that's God's honest truth."

"God's truth don't hold a whole lotta sway with me," Mal confessed. Book's face darkened. "However, I understand it does for you, and I guess that's the best I can get."

"Well, I think it sounds exciting," said Inara.

"Sure, if you're into getting killed," replied Jayne.

Inara ignored him. "A real adventure, exploring somewhere new? It hasn't really be done in ages."

Wash agreed. "Plus, it might even be semi-legal, and profitable. I think we can all use some of that."

"What I'm lookin' for is an up or down vote. Those for?"

Wash, Inara, Kaylee and Mal all raised their hands.

"Against?" Mal asked.

Zoë, Jayne, Book and, reluctantly, Simon, raised their hands. Mal frowned. "Who're we missin'?"

Kaylee looked around. "River."

"Well, where's she at? She's a part of this crew, she gets a vote."

"There's a great idea," Jayne grumbled. "Let the crazy girl decide."

Mal sighed. "Simon, she's your sister, you know her best. What would she say?"

All eyes turned to the doctor.

Simon glanced at the faces around him. "Honestly? River would never back away from a chance to learn new things. She would vote to go."

"There it is then. Wash, plot us a course," Mal ordered.

"Don't know where we're going," Wash pointed out.

"Good point. Well, head us to Boros for now, maybe we can get rid of this thing we took." He glared at Jayne. "I'll go find our passengers and tell 'em the good news. You all… go back to whatever it is you were doin'."

"This is exciting," Wash said to Zoë as the others filed out of the cockpit. "Isn't this exciting? New places, interesting new things to find, maybe interesting people."

"Maybe shooting at us," observed Zoë.

"Yeah, but that's nothing new."

Zoë rolled her eyes. "Oh yeah. This'll go just great."

----------

End Chapter 4


	6. Chapter 5

Title: From Here to Serenity  
Author: Bastard Snow  
Rating: PG-13

Summary: Buffy's fall through Glory's portal took her somewhere nobody had ever imagined. Now, it's up to Willow and Xander to get her back.

Disclaimer: I don't own either of these.

Author's Notes: Much, much thanks to Drake, without whom this story would not exist. Also, obviously, thanks to Joss Whedon for coming up with two universes that have nothing to do with each other. Makes it a challenge to make them have everything to do with each other.

Feedback: Yes, please!

"I'm… not sure I understand," admitted Giles. "What seems to be the problem?"

Willow sighed and went over what had happened one more time.

After a few more hours of discussion and warnings of caution from Anya – who had by far the most experience with magical portals – they had decided to open the portal once for practice, just to make sure everything was going right. They would, if they could, send a message through, should the portal happen upon Buffy, instructing her of what to look for, what they were planning. But mostly, they wanted to make sure Xander wouldn't get fried on the crossover.

It turned out to be a moot point.

When Willow chanted the incantations, she felt the magic flow through her. The spell was working. She could feel it in her bones. She knew that when she finished the last bit of spellwork, the portal would open and they would be able to find Buffy.

Concentrating entirely on the task at hand, Willow intoned the last few syllables, opened her eyes and… nothing. She sensed outward along the flow of the magic, attempting to figure out what was wrong with the spell.

Willow floated along the river of energy, at the same time focused on diagnosing the problem, and amazed at the complete rush she felt. She could feel herself getting closer to the goal, when the magic was suddenly diverted from its path. If she could only just reach out with her hand, she could finish the spell...

She collapsed backwards, feeling a definite buzz from the energy. She disturbed the energy circle, ending the spell. She didn't know precisely what had happened, but she knew what it felt like. Something – someone – was blocking the spell.

Giles looked confused. "It sounds like some sort of… interference on the other end. How could that be?"

Willow scrunched her nose up in frustration. "I don't know. But it seemed kinda like, like it was blocking any magic. Not like it was specific to me, or my spell."

"Interesting. And you've no idea what might have caused this?"

Willow shook her head. They both looked to Anya, who shrugged her ignorance. "It sounds like some sort of shield spell, but it would have to be awfully powerful," she said. "Either that, or it would be centered on Buffy. You did try to tailor it to her?"

Willow nodded. "Yeah, I even had a bit of her hair in the circle to bind it to her."

Giles frowned. "That should be more than sufficient. We shall have to investigate."

Anya picked up the telephone and dialed. "Chinese okay with everybody?" she asked. They nodded.

"Hi, Xander. It's research again…. Yes, he's got that glint in his eye."

Giles rolled his eyes while Willow snickered. "Anyway, can you pick up… no, Chinese tonight. Okay. Oh, do you think tonight we can…" Anya glanced at Willow and Giles, who had just forcefully buried themselves in a couple of books. "…have some fried rice?" she finished. Willow released a breath of relief. "Okay. I love you. Bye."

Anya looked at Willow until the witch looked back at her. "What?" Willow asked.

Anya smirked at her. "Pervert."

----------

Another couple of weeks passed, and though they found nothing that would have the effect Willow described, some progress was made. The side effects of the spell Willow had cast to help her locate Buffy in the first place wore off, and she was finally able to concentrate for hours on end. Despite that, they came up empty.

Willow tried the spell twice more, with the same result each time. Somehow, she was being blocked.

They called Angel, but neither he nor Wesley, nor somebody Angel referred to as 'the Host' were able to find anything in any of their books (or underworld contacts). It was very frustrating.

When they were all angry, and almost ready to give up, Tara suggested something that was extremely dangerous, but at the same time potentially very beneficial. They all agreed it was worth the risk, and Willow wasted no time in setting up the ritual.

On the night of a full moon, more than a month after she had found Buffy's location, Willow cast a spell and called on Artemis, Goddess of the Hunt and Protector of Young Women.

In a flurry of lights and a wave of power, a beautiful woman appeared, wearing nothing more than a toga, sandals, a short bow and a quiver of arrows. Her figure was… statuesque.

"Who are you who have dared to call upon me?" Artemis demanded. Her voice echoed in the chests the gathered Scoobies.

"We," Giles started. His voice caught in his throat, and he started again. "We humbly request your aide in the protection and return of one of your daughters. A hunter, a young woman, has been taken from this realm and we wish to return her."

"Why should I care for one simple girl?" Artemis asked, arrogantly.

"She's a Slayer," Giles informed her.

The Goddess dismissed him with a wave of her hand. "I have another."

"She's my sister," Dawn whispered.

"And how does this con…cern…" Artemis turned her head and her face blanked. "We thought you lost."

Dawn glanced at her friends, eyes wide with bewilderment. She gulped. "Um, no. I was here."

The Goddess approached Dawn, head cocked to one side, and reached out to touch her. Dawn managed to stay put as Artemis traced her finger down the left side of her face and across her lips. Artemis circled Dawn, inspecting her form.

Artemis nodded with a certain amount of finality. "Yes. Yes, this will do. How did you come to inhabit this body?"

Giles coughed. "There were, um, some rather –"

"I was not speaking to you," said Artemis, her voice quiet, yet forceful. She turned back to Dawn and smiled graciously. "Child. How were you put in this form?"

"M-monks," stammered Dawn. She swallowed hard. "Glory was… was trying to –"

"Of course. We had wondered in passing… it is made clear." With a flourish of her toga, Artemis again stood in front of the gathered group. "You wish the return of my daughter, your friend, and this one's sister. You seek a noble goal, but I cannot aid you without receiving something in return."

"What would you have of us?" asked Tara.

"You seek one daughter. Release the other. Do not call me again until this is complete." She snapped her fingers and disappeared.

Anya turned on the lights in the Magic Box. She looked confused. "Release the other? What does that mean?"

Willow, Xander and Giles exchanged glances.

"It means," Xander grumbled, "that we're not going to be having any fun in the near future."

----------

Xander shut the door to his apartment behind him, and fell back against it. It had been an extremely rough day at the construction site.

The Boss – meaning the client – was on-site in the morning, and Xander was given the unenviable job of giving him a tour of the building, explaining various things his people were working on, and ensuring that the client not be knocked over the head with anything.

On the upside of it, Xander thought it meant that the real boss, his boss, had confidence in him. On the downside, it was annoying, and put Xander about an hour behind on his work, an hour Xander had to make up without pulling any overtime.

He sighed, pushed away from the door and trudged into the living room.

"Hi, sweetie," Anya chirped from her spot on the couch. She was reading some magazine or other, Xander was too tired to notice which. "Giles just called. He said he was able to convince the Council, and they were making all the upper level arrangements, but that somebody needed to actually go."

Xander flopped himself down on the couch and grunted. He rested his head in her lap, and she stroked his hair lovingly.

"He also said that it should be somebody she knows."

Xander grunted again.

"And that he called Willow, but her parents are having her and Tara over for an 'acceptance dinner.' What's an acceptance dinner? Is it something we should be doing to show our support of their lesbian relationship?"

Xander laughed and cleared his throat. "No. It's just a thing that… well, you'd have to know Willow's parents."

Anya accepted that with a kiss. "Well, anyway. Giles said that since he had to deal with the council, and since Willow had this thing with her parents, would you be able to go. He said it's happening Friday."

Xander groaned and flung his arm over his eyes.

"Do I have any uncles left?" he asked.

Anya nodded. "On your mother's side. Although I think you also have a grandmother."

Xander shook his head. "She's in Michigan, I'd need more than just a couple of days for that. You know, if any of my relatives actually die, I better have a new job."

Xander stretched out behind him, picked up the phone and dialed his boss's home number.

"Mitch. It's Xander. Yeah. Listen, I just got home, and I hate to do this, but I just found out my Uncle Rico died. I know we're pressed for… Thanks. It should only be a few… No, it was a car accident. Drunk driver… yeah, it does. Listen, thanks for… okay. I'll see you in a few days, Mitch. Bye."

Anya leaned over and kissed Xander's forehead.

He smiled at her. "I hate doing that. But, it has to be done, I suppose. I guess I should leave in the morning."

"Probably best," agreed Anya.

"I really, really don't want to do this."

"I'm sure there will be some sort of karmic reward," said Anya. "In fact…"

She leaned over and whispered in his ear. Xander closed his eyes, relaxed, and grinned.

----------

Xander cleared his throat.

"What are you doing here?"

Xander smiled. "Nice to see you, too."

Cordelia rolled her eyes, ran out from behind the counter of the Hyperion Hotel and pulled her so-ex-boyfriend into a hug. Then she smacked him on the arm. "Seriously, what are you doing here? I thought you guys were all gung-ho research finding Buffy."

"Well, we are," he said. "Or we were. We know where she is, now it's just a matter of getting her back. Is he in?"

"He who? Oh, him! Yeah. Oh my gosh, why? Is this like, some predestined, immortal lovers, heartbreak thing? Because if it is that's so ridiculous."

Xander laughed. "No, Cor, nothing like that. Just a little, um… errand I need to run that I was hoping to have his help on."

"You are asking Angel for help? Geez, this really must be serious."

Xander shook his head. "You have no idea."

Cordelia rolled her eyes at him. "I swear, you two are like little old women arguing over the last tube of concentrated OJ."

Xander paused to picture that in his mind. "Interestingly, I can actually see why you'd think that."

Cordelia laughed. "All right. Come on, I'll show you in."

She led him to Angel's office knocked on the door, and opened it without waiting for an answer.

Angel smiled up at her. "Hey. What's up?"

"Walk-in. He says he needs help," Cordelia told him."

Angel flipped closed the file he was working on and set it aside. "Sure, send him in." He rose from his chair to greet the new customer.

Cordelia stepped out of the way and Xander walked into Angel's office. Angel looked at him, then at Cordelia, then back at Xander. "The world isn't ending, is it?"

Xander shook his head. "Got that dealt with, thanks."

"And we're sure this isn't one of the signs of the apocalypse?" he asked, retaking his seat.

Xander sat down in the chair across from Angel. "Ha. Ha. Ha. Believe me when I say I do not want to be here, but I like my head being attached to my shoulders more than I like my pride."

"What do you need?" Angel asked.

Xander glanced down at his hands. "There's no easy way to say this, so I'll just do it. Angel… I need you to go to prison with me."

----------

The sun was exceptionally bright. She'd been outside, plenty of times, during the year and a half in prison. They had exercise in the yard every day. That was outside, too. Technically.

But now she was outside for real, and somehow, the sun was just… it was brighter.

Faith had absolutely no idea what was going on.

They'd come last night and told her. She was being released early. About ten years early, minimum, by her estimation. She'd confessed to her crimes, and after some negotiations and discussions with the district attorney, she'd pled guilty to one count of involuntary manslaughter (two to four years), one count of murder 2 (fifteen to life).

Her sentence had been reduced by the judge because of the coma she'd been in, and because she'd confessed. She was to be a guest of the state for between fifteen and twenty years. And now, here she was, less than two years later, a free woman. She wondered what gave.

Faith looked across the street, squinting – it really was brighter on the outside – and saw a familiar vehicle. She smiled. Of course he'd be here for her. He was the one person she could really count on. Faith strolled across the street, walked around the car and slid into the passenger side. She turned and –

"What the hell are you doing here?" she asked.

Xander nodded. "Seems to be the only greeting I get these days. Say hi, Angel."

"Hello, Faith," said Angel, his voice muffled by the blanket on top of him. Xander put the car in gear and pulled u-turn, putting their backs to the sun.

Faith was still bewildered. "What the hell –"

"It's on the up-and-up, Faith," Angel assured her as he drew himself out from under the blanket. "There were some strings pulled, but it's real. You're free."

Faith squinted. "So what the hell's he doin' here?"

"I'll let Xander explain."

"Gee, thanks." He rapped his fingers on the steering wheel a few times, then cleared his throat. "There was a, um… a portal, thing. This hellbitch was trying to sacrifice Dawn and Buffy –"

"Dawn?" Faith asked. "Why her?"

Xander waved her question off. "Not important to the story. Anyway, Buffy was, you know, saving her, and the uh… the portal wouldn't close without um. Without blood. So, uh, so Buffy uh… she jumped. You know, into it."

Faith's eyes flew wide open. "Is she, you know…"

Xander shook his head. "No. Just off in another dimension somewhere. We're working on getting her back."

"What's that got to do with me?" Faith asked.

"We've run into some problems in the whole 'getting her back' scheme. So we kind of called upon a Goddess to help us out a bit."

"A goddess," Faith deadpanned.

Xander nodded. "Yeah. Artemis. Willow kind of… invoked her. Or something. All I know is she showed up. Anyway, she said she'd help us, but not for free. You're the price."

"Me?" Faith asked.

Angel explained. "Artemis is the Goddess of the Hunt, and Protector of Young Women. She apparently has some interest in Slayers. She wanted you free."

"So the only reason you got me out of jail is so you can get your precious B back. Wonderful. Pull the car over, I'll walk."

Xander shook his head. "No, I don't think so. None of us were exactly in favor of getting you out, but now that you are, we're gonna make the best of it."

"Really know how to make a girl feel special," Faith muttered.

"Is there any particular reason we should have wanted to get you out?"

"Screw you," she barked

"Guys –" Angel tried.

"No, I'm serious. What possible reason could we have? You woke up from your coma and did nothing but make our lives hell. You stole Buffy's body, slept with her boyfriend, assaulted her mom and sister. Before that, you tried to kill all of us, even me. I mean, come on, nobody tries to kill me. Half the time they don't even realize I'm there. You must really have hated us. So if you've got a reason why we should have done anything for you, I'd love to hear it."

Faith said nothing, and the three of them sat there in a ridiculously awkward silence.

Xander and Faith continued to glare back and forth for the twenty minutes it took to get to the freeway, where they ground to a slow crawl. Xander glanced over at Faith, who was gazing out of the window. He took a deep breath.

"It wasn't all your fault."

Faith looked at him questioningly.

Xander swallowed and continued. "The things that happened the first time. It wasn't all your fault. I mean, you made your choices and everything, but we kind of made them easy for you to make. We didn't… anyway, sorry. It's not enough, but sorry."

Faith stared at Xander for a moment. She opened her mouth to say something, but instead turned back to the window to look at the sunset. She stayed silent for the rest of the trip.

----------

End Chapter 5


	7. Chapter 6

Title: From Here to Serenity  
Author: Bastard Snow  
Rating: PG-13

Summary: Buffy's fall through Glory's portal took her somewhere nobody had ever imagined. Now, it's up to Willow and Xander to get her back.

Disclaimer: I don't own either of these.

Author's Notes: Much, much thanks to Drake, without whom this story would not exist. Also, obviously, thanks to Joss Whedon for coming up with two universes that have nothing to do with each other. Makes it a challenge to make them have everything to do with each other.

Feedback: Yes, please!

* * *

"Where did you get these coordinates?" Wash asked. Xander watched him punch the coordinates in manually. Though Wash said he had done it many times before, it was still no easy feat. These days, all coordinate updates were done automatically, by connecting with the Cortex. After all, the only reasons somebody would need to enter their own coordinates were exploration (which was not done in cargo ships like Serenity) and various illegal doings (which were done almost exclusively in cargo ships like Serenity).

"Got 'em from someone I know." It was not technically a lie, as Willow had given him the paper with the coordinates written on it.

"We often get things from people we know. Like this one time, I was eating some food in the mess, and Jayne gave me this nice, big bruise, right on my shoulder."

"Awfully considerate of him."

"Wasn't the only one wanted to do it," added Mal. He was watching over Wash's shoulder as the pilot finished entering the coordinates. "And you're lucky it was just your shoulder, not your eye or somethin'."

"Aww, Mal. You know Jayne's too afraid of Zoë to really hurt me."

"Yeah. That makes about a thousand of us," muttered Mal.

Wash punched a few last buttons on the screen. "Okay. That should do it. The location comes up on the screen and…"

Mal frowned. "That's the middle of nowhere. Way out on the spiral arm, ain't nothin' even special about the place. Hell, there ain't even a star there, accordin' to the chart."

"Oh, there's a star there. And two more special things. My friend, and the birthplace of the human race. And anyway, what do you care? We're paying."

Mal glanced at him. "Reason I care is because I gotta protect my ship, and my crew. That comes before everything else. How do I know you ain't got a buncha Reavers out there waitin' for us?"

"You don't. Same way we don't know you won't take our stuff, kill us, and throw us out the airlock."

"I wouldn't do that."

Xander adjusted his arm in its sling. "And we wouldn't ambush you with Reavers. You're just gonna have to trust us."

Wash held a finger up to be recognized. "It is the wrong side of known space for Reaver territory."

"It's in known space?" Xander asked.

Wash shook his head. "A few systems out of. Known space goes out pretty far past civilized space, and we're going out past that, so it's not like a trip around the block. Anyway, Reavers are still pretty far away from there."

Mal tapped the screen a few times, bringing up different portions of the map. "Well, we'll have to refuel again, once we hit that mining colony."

"Actually, we can get all the way out there on what we've got," Wash pointed out.

"I wanna make sure we can get back, too. Okay, Wash, I guess it's time to make for Earth."

Wash tossed a lazy salute. "Yes, sir."

Mal turned to Xander. "Care for a snack? I'd love to pick your brain about what you expect to find out there."

Xander grinned. "Eating is one thing I'm always up for." He and the captain made the short walk back to the mess, where they found Willow and Shepherd Book discussing religion.

Mal listened in for a few moments as he retrieved a couple glasses of water and some protein bars. He put one of each down in front of Xander and pulled up a chair across the table from them.

"She must know her stuff if she's talkin' to him about religion. What do you folks practice?"

"Willow… she kind of picks and chooses. Mostly, uh… Jewish and Wicca."

Mal raised an eyebrow. "Not familiar with Wicca."

Xander shrugged. "It's kind of a fringe thing, I guess, but it's very good hearted."

Mal nodded and bit into his protein bar. "What about yourself?"

Xander took a sip of his water. "Not much for practicing."

"Lack of faith?" Mal asked.

Xander shook his head. "Overabundance of proof."

"Oh?"

"Do you believe in the existence of dogs?" Xander asked. Mal looked at him oddly. "Right. You don't have to. Same deal, more or less. I know there's a God, I'm just not sure if I like the guy. Just because He came up with creation doesn't mean He's nice."

Mal stared at him for a moment. "That's an interesting way of looking at things. Don't suppose you'd be willin' to share any of this 'proof'?"

Xander smiled. "Wouldn't believe me if I told you. Maybe when we get to Earth, you'll find some proof of your own."

"So what do you believe in? Man's gotta believe in something, otherwise he's not rightly a man."

Xander nodded as he chewed up some vaguely meat flavored protein. "I have a very strong faith in my friends, and the ability of man to choose to do the right thing. I also believe in being prepared in case man doesn't."

Mal nodded. "There's sense in that, I think." He paused for a moment and seemed to be considering his words carefully. "So, you think there'll be anything out there worth selling? More'n a few folk's have gone out searchin' and not come back, or come back broke."

Xander leaned back in his chair and thought for a moment. "Humpback whales and Captain Kirk."

Mal looked at him blankly.

"Okay. Star Trek, not well known. I can accept that. Umm, I think we'll find some weird stuff… some weirder stuff… and my friend. To be honest, though, and maybe I should have mentioned this earlier, I think that this is going to be very dangerous. It's actually possible we might die."

Mal put down his protein bar. "I ain't scared of a fight, but I only fight for the right reasons. What's there's got you itchin' to go?"

Xander shrugged. "My friend is there."

"And that's it. Just… your friend?"

Xander looked him in the eye. "'Just' makes it sound small. It's not. It's my friend."

Mal nodded. "Well, I guess we'll just have to deal with the danger when we come to it."

"That's generally how it goes, yeah."

Mal nodded again. "So. Do you think we'll find some artifacts? Of any value?"

Xander shrugged. "I don't know."

"I wouldn't be surprised," Willow answered. She smiled sheepishly when they both looked at her, surprised. "Sorry, I don't mean to eavesdrop but Shepherd Book had to go and do something… with his hair?"

Mal laughed. "It's a chore and a half. But you were saying?"

Willow smiled and dropped into the chair next to Xander. "It's just, for a long time human beings have had a propensity for saving artifacts connecting them to their ancestors. Museums, personal collections, even just people saving things in their homes, all are ways of storing keepsakes. The fact that people in known space are willing to pay so highly for artifacts from Earth shows just how much people value their history, even if they know very little about it."

Mal nodded thoughtfully. "So there's likely to be some."

Willow smiled. "Yup. But I wouldn't be surprised if they want to keep them as much as you want to take them."

Xander laid his cup down on the table, having drained it. "Well. Doc said I should get some rest, so I'm gonna go lie down in my cabin for a while. And Captain… thank you."

"For what?" Mal asked, cocking an eyebrow.

"Taking us to Earth. I know it's not uh… well, even for what we're giving you, a lot of people wouldn't do it. So thanks."

Mal shrugged. "I'm not opposed to helpin' a fella out once in a while."

"As long as he pays?" Xander asked.

Mal smiled. "Just a bonus." He paused, considered, and continued. "'Course, sometimes I am opposed to helpin' a fella out. That's where money comes in."

Xander nodded, reached across with his good arm and patted Willow on the shoulder, then headed for his bunk, lay down, and went to sleep.

----------

"Not good. Not good not good not good not good."

Simon looked up from his journal, and Xander and Willow from the odd card game they were trying to teach to Kaylee and the Shepherd. For some reason, it dealt with a fish, and an exchanging of cards by rotating request. He couldn't quite figure out the draw of it.

"What's not good, sweetie?" Kaylee asked, concentrating on the game at hand.

River was looking out the view ports and hugging herself tightly. She sounded scared. "This place. This place is bad. They're here. They're here and they're going to stop us."

"Who's here?" Simon asked, concerned. Sometimes his sister's ramblings were nonsense, but she seemed to have an odd faculty for, as crazy as it seemed, knowing things that she couldn't possibly know.

"They're coming for me, Simon. They're coming for me and they're going to want all of us." Her voice was high and panicky. She sank down against the wall and hugged her knees to her chest. "Two-by-two, hands of blue. Two-by-two, hands of blue. They're going to come."

Simon was moving to his sister when she pointed directly at Xander and Willow. "You know," she whispered. "What they are. You see them. You know. Hands of blue, two-by-two."

Xander and Willow exchanged a glance as the others looked at them warily.

Simon embraced his sister. "River. Stay calm, mei-mei. Nobody's going to get you."

"No." Simon could feel her shaking. She was still pointing at Xander and Willow. "You'll stop them."

"That's an interesting statement," observed Mal. He was standing at the entrance to the mess. "She all right?"

Simon nodded. "I think so. I'm just going to take her down to –"

"No. I want to stay here. I feel fine," she insisted.

Simon smiled sheepishly at the captain. He was still amazed at how quickly his sister could go from seeming insanity to complete lucidity.

"What did you mean, River?"

River lowered her arm and hugged her legs some more. Simon shrugged helplessly.

Mal nodded, and looked to Xander and Willow. "You two have any idea?"

They shook their heads.

"Does she often have… um… outbursts like that?" Xander asked.

"Occasionally," Simon admitted.

"Does she talk about the future much?" asked Willow.

Simon looked to the captain for guidance, but he shrugged, indicating that it was Simon's decision. Simon looked to both Book and Kaylee, and found support, but no advice.

Simon cleared his throat and affected what he thought of as his 'doctor' voice. "Some. Most of the time, she's completely lucid, like now. She knows what's going on, she knows… she acts fine. Other times, she babbles. Incoherent, words stringed together that don't make sense. And then once in a while, she says something like that. She… knows things that she shouldn't. Couldn't. She… says things about the future, or the past."

Xander and Willow exchanged another glance.

Kaylee regarded them. "Y'all know more than you're lettin' on."

"We don't know anything," Xander insisted.

"But, we might have an idea," admitted Willow.

Mal shook his head. "Just who in the hell are you?"

Xander smiled at him. "You wouldn't believe us"

"Well try me. I'm pretty gullible."

"Captain," Xander began, "if we told you the truth, you would think we were crazy. If we told you the story we made up, you wouldn't believe us. I can tell you honestly we mean you and your crew no harm."

"But we might be able to help," Willow added.

"I don't like secrets on my boat," Mal told them. "And I'm wondering now whether goin' out to this place is such a good idea."

Simon scanned the faces in the room. Mal was obviously worried, Kaylee was trying not to show her absolute disbelief, and Shepherd Book was… well, he looked intrigued.

"But," Mal continued, "seein' as you're not the only ones here got secrets, and y'all ain't shown signs of tryin' to get us killed, I suppose we can give you the benefit of the doubt."

Book rose from his seat. "Excuse me. I suddenly feel the urge to… collect some readings."

"Shepherd?" Mal asked.

He opened his mouth, and for about the first time Simon had ever seen, Book looked flustered. "I have to… read a few things. But please don't make any rash decisions. I believe these two young people are of pure intentions. I … have things to check."

Mal frowned even more, but nodded.

Willow pointed toward the guest cabins. "I… actually, we should check some things, too."

"We should?" Xander asked, surprised.

Willow nodded. "Hands of blue sounds familiar." Xander looked confused. "Research familiar," Willow added.

Xander moaned. "And here I thought we got away from that."

"So, what's going on?" Simon asked. He wasn't exactly sure what had just happened.

"In a very round-about way," Xander said, "we're trying to help your sister."

"Oh. Good."

River gazed at them, her eyes wide. "You'll do it. You have the answer."

Xander and Willow looked at her. Xander's head drooped. "Yeah. We probably do."

----------

"She sounds like her," Willow commented. They were in her room on Serenity, researching.

"Who sounds like who?" Xander asked. He was flipping through the pages of one of the few research books they had brought. Giles was only willing to entrust them with the ones that they had replicas of, but that was generally okay because those were the ones most often used. They contained the more common demons.

"River. She sounds like Drusilla."

Xander agreed. "Less with the death and dolls, but I see the resemblance. You think she's got some of that? Dru was pretty crazy."

"I don't know. But it's possible." Willow tapped away at the keys of her laptop. "I really need to upgrade the search protocols of this database."

There was a knock at the door.

Willow sighed in frustration and hit a couple of keys to close the windows on her screen. "Come in."

The door slid open and Shepherd Book stepped inside.

"What can we do for you?" Xander asked, closing his text.

"I think the question is, what can I do for you?" Book slid the door closed behind him.

"I'm sorry?" Willow asked.

The shepherd pulled a Cortex reader from behind his back and began reading from it. "And with the spilling of the blood of an innocent from a rickety tower, fifty feet in the air, the sky was rent. Monsters spat forth as if from the ether. And though she slew Glorificus, the day was not to be hers." Xander and Willow sat up a little straighter. "The Slayer made the ultimate sacrifice, and with it, she saved the world. But not for the last time."

Willow and Xander sat in stunned silence. That was almost exactly what had happened a couple of months ago. Except that –

"Wait, she didn't die," Xander protested.

"She did," said Book. "I assure you, she did."

"How did you know who we were?" Willow asked.

"I guessed. I should have guessed earlier, it just never occurred to me. However, I thought it more likely that you were… there are coincidences of the spirit and the flesh that man cannot account for. I dismissed your true identities as an impossibility."

"How did you know about our 'true identities'?" Xander asked. "I mean, what, are we famous?"

Book regarded him carefully. "Within certain circles, yes. The two of you… are friends of the Slayer. Of Buffy Summers."

Willow nodded. "Yeah. Best friends."

Book's voice was full of awe. "The two of you, here. Willow Rosenberg. I should have recognized you from the descriptions alone. And Alexander Harris."

"Just Xander, thanks."

"You would have been harder to peg."

"Why?" asked Willow.

"Because you still have both your eyes."

"I what?"

"He WHAT?"

"Please," said Book. "I think… I think if we talk some things through, we can understand what has happened. Maybe if we're all well informed, we can make better decisions. Perhaps… I'm sorry, I'm still a little overwhelmed by all of this. Perhaps you could begin by… telling me how you're here?"

Willow nodded. "The long and short of it is, we're from a different dimension. Where Buffy jumped through the portal and got sent here. She didn't die."

"Yeah," Xander added. "Let's go back to that disturbing little bit of information."

"Her death only lasted for a few months," Book assured them.

"It what? But you said she died." Xander was confused.

"Yes, but," Book paused. "It was not a natural death. And your powers as a Wicca came in… very handy."

"Okay," Willow said, waiting for an explanation. "How do you know this much about us? It's been, what, five hundred years?"

"Four hundred eighty three years since man left Earth and headed out for the stars. You would call this 2517. And the reason I know of you, is because of my job."

"I thought you were like a priest," Xander said.

Book nodded once, solemnly. "I am. But originally, on Earth, we were known by a different name."

Xander and Willow waited silently, and Book smiled.

"We were called Watchers."

----------

End Chapter 6


	8. Chapter 7

Title: From Here to Serenity

Author: Bastard Snow

Rating: PG-13

Summary: Buffy's fall through Glory's portal took her somewhere nobody had ever imagined. Now, it's up to Willow and Xander to get her back.

Disclaimer: I don't own either of these.

Author's Notes: Much, much thanks to Drake, without whom this story would not exist. Also, obviously, thanks to Joss Whedon for coming up with two universes that have nothing to do with each other. Makes it a challenge to make them have everything to do with each other.

Feedback: Yes, please!

* * *

Faith shook her head. "I still don't get it." She, Xander and Angel were in the lobby of the Hyperion discussing the future. The question of how Buffy could close a portal opened by Dawn's blood had come up, and Xander was doing his damnedest not to even hint that there was anything special about Dawn, or her blood.

"Because they're sisters," Xander lied. "Don't ask me, I mean, all I know is it's a whole blood thing. But the way I understand… it's because they're sisters."

Faith squinted at him. "Okay. So… what's this choice?"

"Well, you're free now. Really free," said Angel. "You can do what you want. You can head out on your own if you want. You're welcome to stay here with me at the hotel… although if you do that, I'd appreciate if you skirted away from Fred for a bit."

"Who?"

Angel shook his head. "Girl we brought back from this other dimension. She's… kind of afraid of everything."

"Uh, okay. Why?"

"She hid in a cave for a long time, went a little crazy. Also she's a genius."

"Weird."

"A little," Angel agreed.

Xander laid out her other option. "Or, you can come back to Sunnydale with me. Do some work on the Hellmouth. We uh… well, Giles has a spare room that you can have until you find your feet. If uh… if you're interested, I can probably swing getting you a job, if you don't mind construction. Plus, we're kind of… Slayer-less at the moment. Not a good thing to be on a Hellmouth."

"Either way, we've scraped together some cash so you're not completely destitute," Angel told her.

"I…" Faith started. "Um. Thanks."

Xander checked his watch. "Anyway. Think about it. I'll be back in the morning. Oh, Angel, tell Cordelia that yes, she's invited, no, she's not picking any of our outfits."

Angel nodded at him and tossed a quick wave as Xander left. He turned back to Faith. "So, I've got a room set up for you for the night. I think Cordy's got a small television stashed behind the counter, and there's a paper around here somewhere if you want to catch up on current events, or… fashion…"

Faith nodded at him.

"You haven't smiled," he noticed.

"Any reason I should?"

"You're out of prison."

"I haven't made up for what I did."

Angel shrugged. "You can do that better out here anyway."

Faith nodded. It was true that she could make up for things better on the outside, but there was also a lot more room for her to screw up. In prison, she had to stop herself from cracking anybody's skull and from breaking out. In the real world, the temptations were far more numerous.

"So, you'll be okay for a while?" he asked.

Faith looked at him, eyebrows creased. "Where are you going?"

"It's uh… night. I'm going, you know… out."

"Need help?" Faith asked. She hoped he did, although she kept her voice even. She really didn't want to have to sit in the hotel all by herself. No way to keep her thoughts out of her head if she was alone. Fighting something, anything, would do that job just fine.

Angel shook his head. "No. It's just a simple surveillance. Why don't you relax? Watch some TV, maybe read some. Get your bearings. If you're awake when I get back, we can talk about stuff. If not, then in the morning."

Faith nodded. Damn. "Okay. Uh, which room is mine?"

Angel reached behind the counter, grabbed a key and tossed it to her. "207. If you choose to stay here, you can change it to where ever you want."

"Thanks."

"Okay, well. Get some rest. I'll see you later."

"Yeah, later."

And suddenly, Faith was alone. Alone was something she hadn't truly been in over a year, even after the other inmates learned not to mess with her. Faith liked alone. She thought she might try it for a while. Find some place on her own and just stay away from everyone. In prison, unless you were in the hole, there was always someone nearby.

Faith was proud of the fact that she hadn't once been sent down there. Even the early fights, when she'd figured out she needed to send a message to the other inmates so they wouldn't mess with her, hadn't been enough to stick her in solitary.

In truth, Faith had held back a lot in those fights. She could easily have killed her attackers. As it was, she barely even broke any bones.

Free and alone, Faith took a few minutes to figure out what she wanted to do. Neither watching television nor reading the paper seemed adequate uses of her first alone time. She decided to check out the room Angel had set up for her.

When she found the room, she knocked on the door, then realized that nobody would be inside. She opened it up and found a nicely decorated room, kinda old fashioned, but definitely respectable. There were some sweats on the bed, which she appreciated. She didn't really have any clothes but those on her back. She'd have to go shopping for something, soon.

Faith looked around the room for another moment. There were only two more doors.

Behind the first, she found a small, empty closet. She had nothing to put in it. Faith closed the closet door, then opened the second door in the room, and grinned.

She hadn't showered alone in ages.

---------

Freshly showered, and in clean clothes, Faith decided to explore the hotel a little. One floor seemed to be pretty much like any other. She found the kitchen and helped herself to a turkey sandwich. She was sure Angel wouldn't mind.

As she padded around the third floor, a door opened and a thin slip of a woman poked her head into the hallway.

"Angel?" she asked. "Oh… you're not…"

"He went out," Faith said.

"I'll just… I'll wait for him here, then."

"Who're you?" Faith asked.

"Oh! Where're my manners? I suppose that spending… five years trapped in a hell dimension, a fugitive from the demons that held humans as slaves, not knowing when my next meal would come or how I was gonna stay alive for more than a few days, and not knowing if I'd ever see home again, let alone Earth, well it might just have been a little too much I suppose. I'm sorry, what was it you asked?"

"Uh. Who are you?"

"Oh!" The woman released an awkward and seemingly fearful laugh. "I'm Winifred Burkle. You can call me Fred. Well, I'm gonna –"

"Hold up."

"What? Why? Is something wrong?"

Faith was taken aback by Fred's frailty.

"No. It's five by five."

Fred snickered again. "Twenty-five. Perfect square."

Faith regarded the woman oddly. "How 'bout that?"

"Can I tell you something?" Fred asked in a conspiratorial whisper.

"Yeah."

"Angel saved me."

Faith smiled. "Me too."

Fred looked crestfallen. "Oh." She sounded like her heart was broken. "I have to go." She darted back into her room and slammed the door shut behind her.

Faith stared at the door a moment.. That's what five years alone had done to the girl? Faith shook her head. No thanks.

----------

Cordelia gasped. "Oh, godsend. The coffee here is crap."

Xander set down the tray of coffee "I figured. After all, you make it don't you?"

"You make it don't you?" Cordelia repeated, mocking Xander's voice. She lifted a cup of coffee from the tray.

"Real attractive, CC," Xander said as he sipped his own drink.

"So, I'm seriously invited?" she asked, tasting her drink, scowling and switching it with another.

Xander shrugged. "Yeah. Why not?"

"Uh, because I'm your ex-girlfriend, and your fiancée is a former vengeance demon?"

"Ah," Xander raised a finger in the air, "but if not for you, we would never have met."

"If not for a bit of rebar through my stomach." She sipped her new drink and grinned brilliantly in approval.

Xander's eyes dropped to the floor. "Yeah."

Cordelia rolled her eyes. "Get over yourself. I have!"

Xander laughed and shook his head. "Thanks, I think." A door opened behind him and he saw a tall, bald black man walk into the hotel.

"Mornin'," the man said.

Cordelia waved. "Hi, Gunn. This is Xander, from high school."

Gunn shook Xander's extended hand. "Hey. Would that be Xander 'lying, cheating, back-stabbing, untrustworthy scum, but nice in a kind of dopey, adorable, fixer-upper way, and completely obsessed with Buffy' Harris?"

"Uh, yes?" He turned to Cordelia. "Adorable?"

"Like a puppy," she explained, "not adorable like Brad Pitt. And nice how you don't deny the Buffy obsession."

Xander waved her off. "Long gone. Except for the whole bringing her back from another dimension thing."

"Well, that's understandable."

"So what are you here for?" Gunn asked.

Xander pointed behind Gunn. "Her, actually."

Gunn turned around, saw Faith, and smiled. "Morning. We just got all kinds of visitors today. Ain't nobody tells me anything."

"Hey," Faith said with a quick nod.

"I'm Charles, but most people just call me Gunn."

Faith raised an eyebrow. "Why?"

He shrugged. "It's my last name."

"Morning, Faith" Xander called. "You about ready?'

She eyed him cautiously. "For what?" she asked.

He held up a wad of cash. "You need some new clothes, right?"

----------

After an extensive shopping trip – which Cordelia insisted on tagging along for – Xander and Faith returned to the Hyperion Hotel laden down with tank tops, form-fitting jeans and a substantial selection of girly underwear that Xander was able, surprisingly, not to picture Faith in. He supposed it was the whole 'murderer' thing that kept his imagination – and memory – in line.

The shopping trip lacked the awkwardness of the previous day's car ride, not because they were talking or getting along, but rather because Xander handed Faith a lump of cash for her to spend as she pleased, then was dragged around to stores where Cordelia, unlike in high school, bought nothing. They met up a couple of hours later for a quiet trip back to the hotel, where Angel was waiting.

Faith grabbed Angel and retreated into his office. Xander and Cordelia continued to chat, arguing about some pointless subject like why anybody would admit to being a Clippers fan, or if, in fact, leprechauns existed, when someone else entered the room.

"Xander," called a British voice.

Xander turned around to see Wesley Wyndham-Pryce approaching him, arm extended. Xander shook the offered hand. "Wow. You're… not wearing a suit."

Wesley smiled. "They do get rather tiresome. I'm sorry to hear about the troubles with Ms. Summers."

Xander had to laugh at the understatement. "Thanks. We'll get her back though."

"I was wondering if I might speak to you privately, for a moment."

Xander looked to Cordelia for some hint of what it might be about. She shrugged. "Uh, sure."

Wesley led Xander into a secluded spot, crossed his arms and spoke softly.

"I do not know if you're aware, but prior to being incarcerated last year, Faith went on somewhat of a rampage. She… well she tortured me, and tried to kill Angel, all while in the employ of a law firm with which we often butt heads."

Xander frowned and crossed his arms. "I'm sorry, I didn't know. Buffy was light on the details when she got back… plus we kinda had this other thing going on."

Wesley waved off his concern. "I've quite recovered. It's just a warning. You don't know what she's capable of."

"Well," Xander said. "I don't even know if she's coming back with me. I'm kind of split, actually, on which would be better. On the one hand, Hellmouth. Lack of a slayer is kind of a bad thing."

"And on the other?"

"I don't want her to kill me and my friends."

Wesley nodded, and opened his mouth to speak, when someone else did instead.

"I don't do that anymore."

They turned to find Faith standing not ten feet from them, arms crossed

"Faith!" Xander was obviously surprised. "Uh, we were just…"

"Talkin' about me behind my back, and talkin' about me bein' a killer."

"No," Xander attempted to cover, "we were talking about… uh… Mimi Rogers."

Wesley looked at him oddly, and Xander shrugged.

"Whatever. Listen… that Sunnydale offer."

"Yeah?"

"I think that's the right one. It's where I did the most hurt. It's probably where I can do the most good. And I wanna… help out, you know."

"Sure," Xander said.

Faith took a deep breath. "And if it's not uh… that job thing? I'd um… appreciate it."

Xander checked his watch. "Well, if you don't have much else to do… how soon can you be ready?"

Faith shrugged. "Not like I have anything keeping me here."

Xander nodded. "Okay. Well, let me just find –"

"WHO THE HELL ATE MY TURKEY?" Cordelia yelled, storming her way out of the kitchen. Faith looked at the ground guiltily.

"Sorry, Cor," Xander called out, drawing her attention. "I got hungry."

She stabbed a finger at him. "Where's the respect, huh? You don't just raid someone's fridge!"

Xander shrugged as Faith moved towards the center of the lobby, her bags of clothes, and Angel. "You know my appetite."

Cordelia scowled at him. "Well, don't let it happen again."

"Should be easy since we're about to leave."

"Oh." She walked up and gave Xander a hug. "If I don't get that invitation, I'm going to be very offended."

Xander wrapped his arms around her and laughed. "You'll be invited," he assured her. Xander kissed her on the cheek. "Stay alive, huh?"

"Duh! You too, okay?"

Xander nodded, then turned and shook Wesley's hand. He walked over to Angel and tossed his keys to Faith. "You can put your stuff in the back."

Faith looked at the keys in her hand, and turned to Angel, fear in her eyes.

Angel smiled softly at her. "You're going to be fine. And you can call me any time, okay? For anything."

Faith nodded shortly. Angel reached out and patted her on the back.

"Go on," he said. "Xander'll be out in a minute."

Faith nodded and left the hotel. Angel turned to Xander.

"Don't screw up," he ordered.

"Thanks for the vote of confidence, Deadboy."

"I mean it. She's in a fragile place, and you could do any number of things to set her off. A joke at the wrong time, a careless word…"

"Look, I get it. Don't provoke the murderer."

"She's not –"

"Yeah," Xander said. "She is. I'm not saying she doesn't deserve a second chance but we'd be stupid as hell not to keep an eye out. Well as far as I'm concerned, we've filled up on our quota of stupid for the year."

"Fine. But don't let that farm boy of Buffy's near her."

Xander coughed. "Riley left."

"Oh. Was she…"

"I mean, there have been other things to… but pretty much, I think so. Yeah."

Angel nodded. "Listen, just… take care of her."

Xander glanced over his shoulder at Cordelia, then back to Angel. "You too."

They gave each other a curt nod, and Xander left.

----------

End Chapter 7


	9. Chapter 8

Title: From Here to Serenity  
Author: Bastard Snow  
Rating: PG-13

Summary: Buffy's fall through Glory's portal took her somewhere nobody had ever imagined. Now, it's up to Willow and Xander to get her back.

Disclaimer: I don't own either of these.

Author's Notes: Much, much thanks to Drake, without whom this story would not exist. Also, obviously, thanks to Joss Whedon for coming up with two universes that have nothing to do with each other. Makes it a challenge to make them have everything to do with each other.

Feedback: Yes, please!

* * *

Just prior to the closing of the primary Hellmouth in Sunnydale, Willow Rosenberg, possibly the strongest witch since Merlin, activated the entire line of Slayers. Potentials Slayers across the globe became Slayers, had responsibilities they had never known, never asked for, thrust upon them. Some didn't handle it very well. But most accepted their destinies and joined the battle against the forces of evil. 

It was a powerful blow for the side of light.

One year later, when the Los Angeles branch of Wolfram and Hart rebelled against the rest of the firm and took out the Circle of the Black Thorn, evil pushed back, and pushed back hard. A war was fought like had never been seen since the original demons were expelled from Earth.

New weapons were created, and though some tried to stop it, most people didn't see the need to differentiate between the demons that were evil and those that were neutral. Whole communities were wiped out on both sides, and the fight was just getting harder.

The death tolls were high. More than a third of the Earth's population, almost two and a half billion, had been wiped out by demonic forces. Another billion were dying because of disease. There was nowhere to put the bodies. Man was losing the battle for Earth.

And so, fight-or-flight instincts in full effect, man did what only he could do. He flew. Ingenuity was at an all-time high, and the most urgent necessity was to get as far away from Earth as quickly possible. Within a generation, the secret to faster-than-light travel was not only cracked, it was implemented.

The technology and expertise came from America, the labor from China. The two cultures were forced to blend, and by doing so created an entirely new power dynamic that lasted no more than ten years.

Lasted until Earth was all but abandoned.

Nineteen ships the size of large islands were constructed as fast as possible, and when the time came, more than three hundred million people fled Earth, with food and water for only a few weeks. Breeding stock and seeds were brought to begin life anew on whatever planet they could find.

They were very lucky.

The fleet's first stop was a success. A small star, a few tens of light years from Earth and not too dissimilar from man's native Sol, had an orbiting planet that was almost perfect, but for one thing.

There was not enough land for everyone.

The various leaders of all the factions gathered aboard one ship to decide who would get the planet. After almost a day of arguing (things were expedited because of the food and water constraints) they left it to chance. Straws were drawn, and six of the nineteen ships landed. Those six gave up a large portion of their food and water stores, in the hopes that they could soon replenish them.

The rest moved on.

Over the next few weeks, more and more habitable planets were found. More ships left the fleet and gave up their food until, almost two months after they had left, the last two ships set down on a planet, ready to call it home.

Things were calm for years. The human race adapted to its new situation, and adapted well. Commerce began between the planets, as some were found to be rife with certain elements that others lacked. Societies developed by planet, rather than countries with artificial borders. And everyone had space to live.

Sixty years after the first human being had set foot on a new world, the loose confederation of planets was gearing up for war; not with each other, but with the demons of Earth. They had not forgotten their brethren they left behind, and they meant to rescue them.

An armada of more than seventy ships, armed to the teeth, left the confederate worlds headed for Earth, intent on liberating her. Only one was ever heard from again.

Three months after the fleet left, one ship returned. It held only demons, ready to deal. The heads of each planet gathered. They were shown video of the human attack on the demons – it failed utterly. The demons gathered together and destroyed the human fleet like it was made up of so many gnats.

After cries for vengeance died down, the ruling parties debated, yelled, and dealt. Then, with one voice, declared that all attempts to contact Earth were to be halted. All attempts to save Earth were hereby officially ended. The human race – what was left of it – turned its back on its home planet, and looked to the stars.

But this was not enough. Systematically, they began removing any references to Earth's location in the sky. Books were burned, information wiped. The process was long and arduous, but the heads of state were determined to allow no error.

For if man ever again ventured to Earth, the demons would come, and they would spare nobody. This was the price they paid. The life of the human race… for Earth. The rulers of the day joined together, formed an Alliance, and vowed never to let man discover Earth, ever again.

But the toll was greater than just knowledge. Millions of men and women had gone to their deaths to liberate Earth, and they could not be easily replaced. Some of the smaller planets were in dire straits, and refugees flooded to the larger planets. This became known as the Core.

The outlying planets, or the Rim, were reduced to frontier. Those who stayed lived a simpler, but harder life. Man's exploration of the galaxy stopped. People on the fringes of known space suffered hardship after hardship, and became almost feral. Stories of cannibalism and violent death spread to the Core, and the fringe folk were given a new name: Reavers.

Time passed, and people's memories faded. The reasons for leaving Earth had been erased, and were forgotten within a few generations. Centuries passed, and man gained a true foothold in the region.

Throughout that time, only one group knew the truth. One group of people had devoted themselves to study and faith, and were officially sanctioned by the Alliance as the keepers of history. They alone knew the truth about Earth, and they alone knew how dangerous it was to try to return.

They were the Watchers, and they were afforded numerous unique privileges within the Alliance. They had to be; else they could not keep man from rediscovering his past.

The leaders of what was now a religious order were quick to quell anything that might endanger the treaty with the demons. It was why the Alliance was so strict. It was why the Independents could not be allowed to strike out on their own.

And now, for the first time in almost four hundred years, a small ship with eleven people, including two displaced in time, one watcher and a crazy girl, were heading for Earth.

It was not a journey to be undertaken lightly.

----------

Willow sat back in her chair, stunned. But Xander was angry.

"Wait, they just gave up? They turned tail and said 'Sure, go ahead, keep our planet'? That sucks!"

"History is often not to our liking, and many people thought as you do," Book explained. "That is why the Watchers were the only group allowed to keep the knowledge. That is why we protect it. If man ever went back to Earth, we would be destroyed. It is why I voted against going to rescue your friend."

"You what?" Willow asked.

"I apologize, but it was the right decision. In fact, I would ask that you reconsider your journey… although, from what I've read of you, I imagine that request will be in vain."

"Got that right," Xander muttered.

"You must understand," Book pleaded. "If we're caught, if we're traced back here, the demons could mobilize and begin slaughtering the human race."

"We'll think about it," Willow said. "But, Shepherd… do you really think we should have given up Earth?"

"Had I been alive at that time… no. But I wasn't, and now it is my job to protect the human race."

"Maybe the human race could use a good kick in the ass," Xander suggested.

"Perhaps," Book allowed. "But at what price?"

Willow stood up. "I'm sorry, Shepherd. We need some time to talk about this. Do you mind…"

"Not at all." Book rose to his feet and moved to the door. "Please, though. Think about what I've said?"

After Book left, Xander and Willow took a couple of hours alone to research the 'hands of blue' demons and, more importantly, digest the more personal information Book had dropped on them. Willow attempting to destroy the world. Xander losing his eye. Tara dying. Spike becoming Buffy's lover and confidante.

Xander had three things on his to-do list for upon their return to Sunnydale. In order: hug absolutely everybody in the gang and make sure they knew he loved them; find whoever it was that killed Tara and beat the shit out of them for things they were thinking about doing; find some way to foist Spike off on Angel or, barring that, make certain Spike knew that he needed to leave Sunnydale and never, ever return.

In fact, that last bit was a good idea anyway.

Book had explained that pretty much everything that happened; the activation of the Slayers, the attack by the First Evil, all of that, was caused by the resurrection of Buffy. However, since Buffy hadn't died in their universe, they would presumably be safe from all of those horrors.

Or so Xander hoped. He was willing to risk the consequences.

"Look," Willow said. Xander glanced up from the book he was… well, not reading, but staring at, anyway.

"What?" Xander asked. He stood and looked over her shoulder. Willow tapped the screen. "Harlanios demons," Xander read. "Noted having a malleable bone structure making them extremely limber and agile, and impervious to sonic attacks… Sonic attacks? What, they don't run away when someone screams at them?"

"There are some spells that disable people with loud, high pitched sounds," Willow explained.

"Oh. That makes… a lot more sense. Okay… blah blah blah, very calm, blah blah, extremely similar external physiology to humans, excepting their blue hands, which make them relatively easy to pick out. Sure, but not as easy as if they had horns. Blah blah, usually travel in pairs."

"Sounds like it?"

"Yeah." Xander was still reading the entry. "Oh fun. They've got lots of stamina. I love it when it takes a crapload of damage to take a demon down. That's so rare, except for how it's extremely common. I hate these things." He paused, and read some more. "Named for Harlan Ellison? What?"

"I dunno. Either somebody's paying tribute, or somebody really didn't like him."

Xander sat back down on the bed. "Does that thing say how to kill them?"

Willow shook her head. "Doesn't say anything. You know what that means."

Xander nodded. "Hack it to pieces." He pulled a bastard sword out of the bag he had stowed under his bed. "How glad am I that Giles made me bring this?"

"Pretty glad."

There was a knock at the door.

"Come in," Xander called. Captain Reynolds slid the door open, then took a startled step backwards as Xander attached the leather sheath over his shoulder and swung the sword up.

"Whoa," Captain Reynolds said. "Um. We're about twenty minutes from landin' on this mining outpost, just thought you might like to know. What's with the hardware?"

Xander grinned and sheathed the sword. "Call it a little bit of insurance."

----------

The mining colony was bathed in a darkness that, despite being almost midnight local time, and the entire colony being underground, felt unnatural. Built on a cold, lifeless rock not fit for human habitation, the Alliance had put down a colony anyway and shipped prisoners out here to get them the metals they needed to continue operating.

Serenity sat on a smallish landing pad, one of six in the entire colony. She was almost a kilometer beneath the surface of the planet.

A city had been carved out of the earth. Homes and offices looked more like cave dwellings than actual buildings, and the whole place just felt alien. But Mal found himself more disturbed by the ceiling than by anything else.

When he looked up, he couldn't see the sky.

Xander approached the captain from behind. "You seem nervous."

Mal turned to look at him, and nodded. "Yeah. Reckon I am, a mite. Wash and Jayne are off gettin' some extra fuel to top us off. Should be back any time now."

"Do you think something's going to happen?" Xander asked.

"Can't rightly say. Somethin' about this place… don't feel right." He turned to Xander again. "And do you have to wear that thing all the damn time? Makes me nervous."

Xander grinned and patted the sword that was still strapped to his back. "Just in case we get into a fight with those hands-of-blue guys."

"Whatever you say." Mal pulled his pistol form his hip holster. "I find this does just fine."

Xander pointed to an approaching vehicle. "I think that's them." 'The Mule' as they called their utility vehicle, was pretty easy to spot.

"Yep, should be." Mal holstered his gun. The little cart pulled up to the ship, and Wash and Jayne began unloading the fuel. "All right," he said, turning around, "I'm gonna go make sure Kaylee –"

"Captain," Xander said. Mal turned to see him pointing out into the distance. Another car was fast approaching.

"Oh, now, why isn't anything ever simple? You two almost done down there?"

"One more," Wash said, as Jayne ejected an empty fuel cell.

"Well hurry it up a bit." Mal leaned over and pressed the intercom. "Zoë, I know this ain't your job, but please do me a kindness and get us ready to take off. As in, right now."

Mal watched in anticipation as the car got closer and closer. "Jayne…"

"Almost done here, Mal."

Wash hopped back on The Mule and pulled it into the cargo bay. "I'll just go help Zoë."

The car was five hundred feet away.

"Done!" Jayne called. He flung the last cell to the ground.

"Well quit blabbin' about it and get back on the damn ship." Mal slammed a red button and the airlock began to close. Jayne ran inside as Mal and Xander stood there, waiting for the doors to close. Xander pulled his sword from the sheath and placed it behind his leg, mostly out of sight.

The car screeched to a halt and two men wearing dark suits all but exploded from it. They had blue hands. Mal and Xander backed away as the two men sprinted for the ship. They leapt onto the rapidly rising ramp.

"Too late," Mal whispered.

But they weren't. Somehow, their bodies seemed to compress, and they both slipped between the closing doors and onto the ship. Mal's eyes were wide with disbelief.

"That's impossible!"

"Captain, that's not even improbable."

"Good afternoon," the first one said, straightening out his tie. "We were afraid we wouldn't make it in time to… catch you."

Mal frowned. He heard a laugh from beside him, and turned to see that Jayne was also looking at Xander oddly.

The boy shrugged. "It was funny. Gotta respect a man who knows how to pun."

"Please," continued the second, ignoring them all, "we mean you no harm. We only wish to retrieve two fugitives on your ship."

"And who might they be?" Mal asked.

"River Tam and her brother, Simon Tam," said the first.

"Don't know 'em," Mal said.

"We are certain they are aboard, and will tear this ship apart to find them," said the second.

"Over my dead body," Mal said.

"If need be," said the first.

With a quick motion, Mal drew his gun and shot the first one in the gut. He grasped his stomach and fell to the floor as Mal trained his gun on the second, and heard Jayne doing the same. "You don't wanna join your friend there, you might wanna get off my boat."

"Uh, Cap'n?" Jayne said. "He supposed to be doing that?"

Mal turned his head again, and saw that the first one was rising to his feet again. There was a spot of what he would swear was blue liquid staining his shirt, but he seemed generally unfazed. He stood, slipped out of his now-ruined jacket and cracked his neck.

"That," said the second, "was not wise."

The two leapt simultaneously, one at Jayne and one at Mal. Both men fired at the same time, to no visible effect. Mal dropped his gun as the man – and he was no longer certain that was an appropriate label – attacked. It swung a blue fist at him, and though Mal dodged, the fist seemed almost to stretch. It hit him anyway, sending him flying to the floor.

He was just tensing for the kick to the stomach that was so obviously coming, when a flash of metal appeared for just a moment, and then the creature's – Mal was calling it that because of the blue blood now leaking from it – the creature's head flew off, and it fell limply onto Mal's body.

He quickly pushed it off to see what was going on and, as a not insignificant detail, so the blue blood wouldn't get all over him. Though it was a little late for that.

Mal sat up and saw his passenger holding his sword out between himself and the second creature. Jayne had backed away from the fight – possibly a first for him, but he had a bruise growing on his neck where long fingers had wrapped around his throat.

"Mal, what's goin' on here?" Jayne asked. Mal heard a clattering behind them as the entire crew showed up, ready to fight.

"Xander!" Willow called out.

But Xander was too busy to respond. He was currently pressing his sword ever closer to the creature in front of him. It had the blade grasped in its hands, blue blood leaking from its palms. Neither was gaining any ground.

Xander kicked his leg out at the creature, connecting with its stomach. The creature backpedaled, then dove in again, trying to take Xander at the knees, but the boy parried the creature's entire body with his sword, side stepping and opening a gash down the thing's back.

Mal suddenly wished Xander had been around for his fight with that jackass, Atherton Wing. But that was neither here nor there.

The creature rolled and came to its feet, decidedly stiffer now, for its injuries. It had obviously not been prepared for this kind of resistance. And why would it? The only swords Mal had seen were at fancy duels. Who would think to travel with one?

Suddenly and inexplicably, a flash of brown hair and a slim body entered his vision and attacked. River, Mal realized, was on the offensive. She lashed out at the creature's head with a kick that sounded painful. She whipped around and hit the thing with the back of her closed fist, forcing it to stumble.

It spun around to her, arms flailing as fast as it could throw them. River dodged every single blow thrown at her, and managed to land a few of her own. She dodged inside the thing's defenses and landed another devastating blow to its head, with force that made Mal cringe.

River switched legs, swung her entire body around and caught the creature's neck between her calf and thigh. She squeezed, and a sickening crack sounded out through the cargo bay.

The creature fell to the ground, dead. Silence reigned for a few moments as everyone took in what had just happened. It was broken, simultaneously, by one simple word, said with awe and reverence by four people.

"Slayer."

----------

End Chapter 8


	10. Chapter 9

Title: From Here to Serenity  
Author: Bastard Snow  
Rating: PG-13

Summary: Buffy's fall through Glory's portal took her somewhere nobody had ever imagined. Now, it's up to Willow and Xander to get her back.

Disclaimer: I don't own either of these.

Author's Notes: Much, much thanks to Drake, without whom this story would not exist. Also, obviously, thanks to Joss Whedon for coming up with two universes that have nothing to do with each other. Makes it a challenge to make them have everything to do with each other.

Feedback: Yes, please!

* * *

The reaction hadn't been immediate. More immediate, of course, was getting the hell out of that mining colony and out into the relative safety of open space – on a direct route to Earth, but still open space. About an hour out of the mining colony, all hands were called to the mess for what would be called, if one were prone to understatement, a conversation.

"What in the hell is going on here?" Mal yelled. "We got freaksome bendy guys with blue hands and blue blood, Mr. Broadsword over here chopping heads off, and River is of a sudden some kinda superhero. Would somebody mind telling me what in the tyen shiao duh is happening on my gorram ship?"

Xander leaned over to Willow. "Did he just say 'teen chowder'?"

"Tyen shiao duh," Shepherd Book explained. "Um… 'What in the name of all that is holy,' or thereabouts."

"I'm still waiting here," Mal pointed out, "and I ain't exactly pleased about it."

"Cap'n, take a breath," Zoë advised. "I'm sure there's some sort of logical explanation for all o' this. One that'll be forthcoming any moment now." She looked pointedly at the interrogatees. "Right?"

"Certainly," Book said. Xander and Willow nodded as well. "Although, there are parts of it I'm a little fuzzy on. But I shall start with what I know."

"Why you, Preacher?" Jayne asked, waving a knife at Willow and Xander. "Why ain't one o' them talking, since they's the ones got us into this?"

"Because you all know me to be a man of my word," Book said. "As for our guests, well… let's just say the story's a stretch as it is. Comin' from them it might be more than you can believe."

"I don't know, Shepherd," Kaylee said. "I just seen some awful weird things down in that cargo hold."

"Not weird enough by half," Xander said.

"Can we get on with this?" Mal asked, tapping his foot impatiently.

Book nodded, then turned to the rest of the crew and explained the history of Earth as he, Xander, Willow and, apparently, Inara, knew it. He told them of demons, magic, Slayers, the Hellmouth. He told them of the Watchers, and the fight against evil. He told them how man lost the fight and fled to the stars, and of the pact the Alliance made with the demons. And he told them how he and his brethren were charged with keeping the secrets of the past.

When Book was done, the crew sat in silence, absorbing what he had told them. Mal sighed as though put upon, licked his lips and stood up. "So, then, you're tellin' me that River ain't the only nut I brought on my ship?"

"The evidence is right down in the hold, Captain," Book said, gesturing down the stairs. "And in River herself. You saw what she's capable of."

Simon looked directly at Xander and Willow. "What I don't get is where you two come in."

"Well, um… that's even more crazy," Willow said.

Xander grinned. "If you can believe that."

"Not two hours ago I saw my sister break a man's neck using only her thigh, and it turns out that man isn't even a human. There's… not a lot I can't believe right now."

Willow nodded. "Okay. We're from another dimension. Our friend jumped through a portal opened by a Hell Goddess in order to save the world. We found out that she ended up on the Earth in this dimension, and now we've hired you to take us there."

"And that's the dumbed down version," Xander added.

Simon blinked at them. "I was wrong. There are still some things I can't believe."

"Right about something else, though," Mal said.

"I was? Good. When?"

Mal turned to his mechanic. "Kaylee ain't right for judgin' what folks to bring on board."

"You said that?" Kaylee asked Simon, hurt.

"Well, technically… not quite that. I… suppose I can see how my comments could have been taken in that context."

Kaylee glared at him and stormed out of the kitchen.

"Kaylee, wait!" Simon called. He made to follow her, but was pressed back into his seat by a hand on his shoulder. He looked up to see Book holding him down.

"Give her a minute, son."

"What?" Simon asked. "But you don't even –"

"Give her a minute," Xander said. "Trust me, my mouth has gotten me into worse places with my girlfriends."

"She's not my girlfriend," Simon said.

"Really?" Willow looked surprised. "Why not?"

"Well, we –"

"Quiet!" Mal yelled. "Now we got some talkin' to do, things more important than a hurt feelin' or two."

Xander nodded, sagely. "The problems of two people don't amount to a hill o' beans in this crazy world."

Mal looked at him oddly. "Right."

"So what do you need to know?" Xander asked.

"We go to your Earth, are we gonna be safe?"

"Are you ever?"

"We're usually dealing with things we can prepare for."

"Okay," Xander said. "So we'll prepare you as best we can. Here's what you need to know: shoot to kill, crosses work against vampires but not much else, and when all else fails, go for the eyes."

"That's it?"

"Not even remotely," Willow said. "But it is when we want to get there fast. And it's not like we have a better idea what we'll find. So far all we know about is these Harlanios guys, and you kill them but… well, violence."

"I've got a question," said Wash. "Your friend is on Earth. The… planet Earth. Which is a touch on the big side for a game of hide and seek, especially when the other players are trying to eat you."

"That wasn't a question," Willow pointed out.

"How are we going to find her?" Wash asked.

"Magic," Willow told him.

"Magic?"

"Yeah," Willow said. She held her hand out. She lifted the table two feet in the air, surprising Wash and Jayne, who both scrambled back from the table. "Magic."

Mal turned to her. "Impressive as movin' things with your brain is, it don't mean you can find your friend."

"Captain," said Book. "If she says she can do it, she can do it. Willow Rosenberg is one of the most powerful witches in recorded history."

"I am?"

Book nodded, adding a light shrug. "Yes. Although the truth is our records of such things are really not very good. But of the records we do have, you're right up at the top."

Willow wasn't quite sure how to react.

"Will," Xander said, "I think that was his idea of a joke."

"Sorry," said Book. "Do what I can."

Mal shook his head. "Okay, so we know it's dangerous. We're relying on some kinda mojo… wait a second, Shepherd. Ain't there somethin' in the Bible about witches?"

"It's allegorical."

"Really?" Mal asked.

"Certainly," Book confirmed.

"For real?" Xander asked.

"Would I be here, supporting a witch otherwise?" Book asked. "I assure you, I know the Bible better than anyone else here. That entire section is allegorical."

"So," Zoë spoke up, "when they said witches, they didn't actually mean witches?"

Book shook his head.

"What did they mean?" asked Wash.

Book patted the pilot on the shoulder and smiled. "That, son, is why I'm a Shepherd and you're not."

Mal shook his head. "Anyway. Demons, vampires and such. Evilness abounds, and who could blame you for fighting it. What I want to know is what guarantees you can give that me and mine are gonna come out of this ahead."

"None," said Willow. "But you don't want guarantees."

"I don't?"

Willow shook her head. "Guarantees mean no fun. And if you're gonna trash the Alliance like this, you want to have fun."

"Well… okay, you're not wrong. But I do want to know that we'll come out alive and at least repairable."

"I can't guarantee that, either. What I can tell you is this: anybody who goes down will do it in a good cause. The best. The fight against evil."

"It's a true cause," Book agreed. "Something worth believing in."

Mal crossed his arms and turned to Inara. "You knew about Earth-That-Was."

"Yes," she replied.

"And you voted to go."

"Yes."

"Why?" Mal asked.

"It seemed an opportune time," Inara explained. "I have disagreed with the Alliance's policy on this matter for a very long time."

"Have you now?"

"I have," she confirmed.

"But you supported Unification."

"I did, and I still do. I think the Alliance is the right thing for the galaxy. I just happen to disagree with some of their policies. It wasn't the entire alliance that messed with River's head, Mal, and not every person in it is trying to hold you down. Did you ever think about trying to change it from the inside out?"

Mal looked at her for a moment, then turned to Xander and Willow. "Folks, we'll take your words under advisement. I wanna talk to my people. Alone."

Simon sat forward. "Can I…?"

Mal rolled his eyes and waved the doctor off. "Go."

----------

"I wouldn't do that," Xander called. He was leaning against the railing on one of the catwalks in the cargo hold, looking down on Kaylee, who was poking one of the dead demons with her foot.

"Why?" Kaylee asked, backing away quickly. She looked scared. "Could they still be alive? Are they dangerous?"

"Extremely dangerous." Xander jumped down a couple stairs, then down to the floor of the hold. "Not to you, of course. But your shoes. Demon goo is especially hard to get out of clothes."

"Is that why you were so forceful about cleanin' off your sword after… cuttin' this one's head off?"

Xander nodded. "Just good maintenance. Also, Giles would kill me if I ruined one of his good weapons."

"They look so… human. Until, you know, they bleed."

"Or stretch their bodies thin as a sheet."

"Didn't know they did that."

Xander nodded.

"How do you do it?" Kaylee asked.

"Well, you've gotta get some wind-up, and then it's just kind of a swinging motion until you connect with the neck. Then it's just a matter of not stopping."

"I didn't mean –"

"I know what you meant." Xander shrugged. He and Kaylee walked towards the lounge outside the infirmary. "The truth is, it's a lot easier than you'd think. Not…not the fighting part. That sucks, because mostly, they're about four times stronger and three times faster than I am, and they don't concuss nearly as easily."

"So how do you do it? How do you put your life on the line all the time?"

"Because it's not about me. It's not about… what I'm doing or what I want or what I need. It's about protecting the people I love. My family. That's how."

"Really?"

"Well, someone's gotta do it."

Kaylee nodded and sat down on the couch. "I s'pose. Must be awful lonely, though."

Xander heard footsteps behind him and turned to see Willow leading Simon down the stairs.

"Because," Willow was telling him, "sometimes a girl likes to feel appreciated, even if it is awkward for you. Possibly especially if it's awkward for you. Sometimes… she just likes to feel someone's paying attention. In a good way."

"Not so much." Xander answered Kaylee, winking at Willow and turning back to the mechanic. "Just gotta know what's important."

Willow hooked her arm through his and they walked off, leaving a surprised Simon and Kaylee alone in the lounge.

----------

"We're going."

"Great!" Willow shouted. She jumped forward and threw her arms around Captain Reynolds, then seemed to realize what she was doing, pulled away and smoothed out her skirt.

"You ain't heard all I've got to say, yet. There's conditions."

Xander crossed his arms. "Okay."

"First, no more secrets. You tell us as much as you know about what we're gettin' in to, here. I ain't goin' into this thing 'less I feel I know what it's all about, or at least as much as you can tell me."

Xander nodded.

"Second, none of that crazy magic stuff until we get to Earth. Understand? I don't want it messin' with my equipment."

"What, like a cell phone on an airplane?" Xander asked.

The crew leveled blank, uncomprehending stares at him.

"Third," Mal continued, ignoring Xander's comment, "we get to ground, you do what I tell you. This is my crew, and my ship, and I won't be havin' any of this stuff where you just go off and do your thing. It's my rule here, and that's that. Else we c'n turn right around. Or maybe just leave you there."

"Yes, dad," said Xander.

Mal glared at him.

"Look, the first two I can guarantee you. But if it comes to saving my friend's life, I don't take orders from anyone. Except Giles. And Willow. And Buffy herself, actually. Riley. I suppose if Oz ever said anything. But not Cordelia or Angel, and not you either."

"Xander –" Willow started

"I understand that you want to save your friend. It's a noble thing, son. But you do anything to endanger me and mine and I'll put a bullet in you."

"Fine," Xander nodded. "But you do anything to stop me from helping my friend, and I'll have Willow send that bullet right back at you."

"Xander!" Willow tried again.

"Well, then, we might have a problem. See, I don't like going into situations I don't know where my people stand."

"Mal," Inara spoke up, "he's just trying to help his friend."

"You don't defend him," Mal said, pointing a finger at the companion. "You're half culpable in this, far as I'm concerned. You'n Book keepin' things like that, not lettin' us know what's out there."

Inara crossed her arms over her chest. "That's because it's not out there. It's all on Earth."

"I got two bodies in my hold tell otherwise. What, you just happened to forget all this fancy trainin' you got?"

"Oh please. Like you'd have believed me if I told you. You never believed in a thing in your life." Inara took a breath to calm herself down. "Unless it was useful to you."

"You don't know a thing about my life!" Mal shouted, his face red with anger.

Inara shot up from her chair, sending it scraping across the floor and getting into Mal's face. "I know plenty! I know you push people away just when they're trying to get close, and don't let anybody really know you, because you're a coward!"

"A coward, you say!"

"I do!" Inara yelled. "You're afraid that if you let anyone really know you, they won't like who they see, and you never take a chance!"

The two kept yelling at each other, their faces redder and redder.

"Jeez," Xander whispered to Willow. "It's like Sam and Diane."

Willow snorted. "It's like Xander and Cordelia."

Inara shoved away from the table and stormed off towards her shuttle. Xander and Willow both watched her go.

"Captain," Willow said, "you're a very layered individual."

"And I'm wondering if you have a broom closet," added Xander. Willow smacked him in the chest with the back of her hand. "Ow…"

Mal shifted his glare back to them. "Are we clear on the rules?"

"We are," Willow said, her eyes daring Xander to contradict her.

"Yeah," he grumbled.

"Good," Mal said to the crew. "Now, I suggest we all get some rest. We've got a pretty long trip ahead of us, and ain't no tellin' what's out there. Shepherd, Willow and Xander, I expect you to be well rested in the mornin' so you can start explainin 'xactly what it is goin' on, maybe make us all a little more prepared."

"Of course," Book agreed. Willow and Xander nodded silently and headed off for their quarters. Xander stepped into Willow's room and glared at her.

"What?" she asked.

"What? Will, I'm not agreeing to do what ever Captain Tightpants up there says. We get to Earth, we're going for Buffy, whether he thinks it's safe or not."

"Xander, I know." Willow sat on her bed. She patted the mattress, and Xander sat next to her.

"So why did you say we'll do what he says?"

"Because it doesn't matter," she told him.

"We need use of his ship, and we won't have that unless he agrees to it. That kind of matters to me."

"Xander," Willow sighed, "we need use of his ship to get there. We've got that. Leaving Earth is entirely up to me and my mojo. As soon as we've got Buffy, and make sure that the crew isn't going to die if we leave, we're out of there."

Xander considered this for a moment. "As in… it doesn't matter whether he lets us on the ship or not, because you're magicking us home and they're free to do what they want?"

"As in," she confirmed.

"So, you lied?"

"I lied."

Xander scratched his head. "Oh."

----------

End Chapter 9


	11. Chapter 10

Title: From Here to Serenity  
Author: Bastard Snow  
Rating: PG-13

Summary: Buffy's fall through Glory's portal took her somewhere nobody had ever imagined. Now, it's up to Willow and Xander to get her back.

Disclaimer: I don't own either of these.

Author's Notes: Much, much thanks to Drake, without whom this story would not exist. Also, obviously, thanks to Joss Whedon for coming up with two universes that have nothing to do with each other. Makes it a challenge to make them have everything to do with each other.

Feedback: Yes, please!

* * *

Xander finished up his paperwork and left the trailer. He was handed a clipboard, glanced over the sheet of paper on it and signed his name. A quick drink of water later, and he went inside the building to inspect the progress his crew had made.

Mitch had put him in charge of the demo crew for this job, as a test to see how well he could handle the responsibility.

He looked around to make sure all the necessary parts had been torn out, torn down or ripped up, and removed from the premises. When he ensured that was done, he walked outside, called over Esteban and had him pull the crew out. Things were ahead of schedule, and Xander was pretty sure he knew why.

Within a minute, the crew came streaming out of the building. They all tended to enjoy knocking things down, but nobody wanted to be inside when the wrecking ball came. A group of tired, dirty men were intent on sitting down and getting a drink of water. And so was one woman.

Xander radioed his operator and within a couple of minutes, the wrecking ball was taking the building apart. Xander called Esteban over again.

"How's she working out?" he asked.

Esteban shook his head. "She works like a madman, and hits like a giant. You ask me, she could tear this place down with her bare hands."

Xander nodded. "Good."

"Well," said Esteban. "Not entirely. The others are a little put out."

"How come?"

Esteban shrugged. "We get paid by the hour, man. I don't know if you noticed, but we're ahead of schedule. She makes the crew, some of them aren't going to be happy. Especially since you pulled rank to get her here in the first place."

Xander glanced down at the picnic bench where everyone had gathered. All the guys from the regular crew were joking around with each other, occasionally shooting angry looks in Faith's direction. Faith was squatting by a tree, doing her best to ignore the others.

"Are they being rough on her?" Xander asked.

"She's new, she's a girl, she does more work and faster. What do you think?"

Xander scratched his head. "Okay. I'll deal with it if it becomes an issue."

"Anything else?"

Xander shook his head. "Send 'em home for the day."

"You got it, bossman."

"Actually, scratch that." He handed Esteban a couple pieces of paper. "Take those over to the other office, I'll go send everyone home."

Esteban's face fell.

"Sorry," Xander said. "I've had about as much paperwork as I can take today. It's like I'm back in high school, only not as dangerous."

Esteban looked at him oddly – he hadn't grown up in Sunnydale – took the papers and started hoofing it to the site's main office. Xander tossed his clipboard back inside the trailer, then started over to where the workers were gathered.

" – ruin it for everyone. I tell ya, if she wasn't such a nice piece of ass there's no way I'd work a job with her," said Ricky, one of the younger members of the crew. "As it is, I think I might just drop her a twenty and see what I get."

The men around him laughed.

Xander walked over to them, intent on at the very least having them tone it down, and if he could, getting them to shut up completely. For one, they were out of line. For another, they were opening the company up to a sexual harassment suit, and since he was apparently a 'suit-in-training,' he had to think about things like that.

"Over here, guys," Xander said, calling the crew over to him. Faith looked up when he spoke, and his eyes locked with hers for a second.

"Look at the new jefe, all prettied up and respectable like." Rodrigo grinned at Xander. "Gets a promotion but he still comes down to mess with us hard hats. How's it feel bein' the big know-it-all?"

"Hey, man," Xander said, smiling and turning to Rodrigo. "You taught me more about construction than I ever did you."

Rodrigo winked at him. "Yeah, but you gave me some good tips."

Xander looked over at Faith again. Her palm flat against her shoulder, Faith thrust the shoulder forward, presumably to work out a kink in the muscle.

Suddenly, however, Xander was back in Faith's hotel room. Their eyes locked together, but instead of the fun that happened after he reset her shoulder, her hands were around his throat, choking the life out of him with nothing but anger and pain in her eyes. He was going to die.

"Harris, you in there?" Ricky asked.

Xander rubbed his throat, and shook his head to clear it. "Sorry, got caught up in my thoughts for a second."

"Bet that doesn't happen too often," Rodrigo joked, drawing a laugh from the others.

"Okay," Xander said, smiling at him. "You guys did good work today. You know the drill, we'll call you if we can use you. No promises, but you know the kind of turnover we have here."

"Yeah, more guys get in to work than get into Rodrigo's mom," said Ricky.

Rodrigo raised his fists and feinted at Ricky with his left, then reached his other hand around and smacked the kid on the back of the head. They all laughed again.

"All right, all right, quit stalling you goons. The bosses should be impressed today, you've put us ahead of schedule. Go clock out, and thanks for a good day's work."

When the group had broken up, Xander walked over to Faith. He was angry with himself for not getting on the guys about abusing her, but at that moment he just didn't have it in him to defend her.

"How was it?" he asked.

She looked up at him, angrily. "You know, I can…"

"You can what?"

Faith licked her lips. "Nothing. Never mind. What'd you say?"

"I asked how it went."

"Nothin' new, just hitting things and making them fall."

"Yeah, actually, you might wanna tone it down a bit. People get paid by the hour. You put your full Slayer self into it, you're gonna bring down everybody's paycheck."

She glared up at him. "So, your advice for my first day on the job is 'hold back, don't do everything you can.'"

"Look, I'm not saying don't work harder than everyone else, I'm not saying don't out perform them, I'm not even saying don't use your Slayer abilities to help you get ahead. I'm saying… hold something back. You keep this up, and eventually you'll have an 'accident.'"

Faith grunted. "I'll heal."

"That's not the point. Look, if you don't get along with anybody, you're never gonna move up. If you keep people's paychecks low, they won't like you. Get it? I'm just saying be practical."

"Whatever. We done here?"

Xander waved his hand dismissively. "Sure, go on and clock out. And hey."

"Yeah?"

He smiled. "You did good work today."

"What?"

"Look, I know I said tone it down, and I meant it. But you still did good work. If you keep putting out a good effort, you'll catch some eyes, move up." He made a couple of notes on his clipboard, and began walking away. "I'll see you later at the Box."

Faith frowned. "Yeah. See ya."

----------

Xander stepped back into the air conditioned trailer and sighed in relief. It was much, much nicer inside. Plans and papers were strewn across every available surface, and his desk looked like a paperwork monster had vomited all over the place.

As Xander sat down to work, idly wondering if there was in fact a paperwork monster, he pondered his future with the company. Chances were good he'd have to quit, but he didn't want to leave the company in the lurch. He liked them, and wanted the company to succeed.

"Hey, boss, you need me for anything else?"

Xander glanced up at Esteban and squinted a little. "We've got two slots left on drywall. Ricky, Chip, Rodrigo and Faith are available. Who do you go with?"

Esteban scratched his head. "I thought Rodrigo was working way up high on the beams for a week or two. You know he keeps those young kids in line."

Xander waved his hand dismissively. "Hypothetical."

Esteban scratched his head again, then shrugged. "Ricky and Faith."

Xander was surprised. "Why them?"

"Cuz she can get the work done, and screw him. Kid bugs me."

"You don't think that would make him do bad work?"

"You kidding me? He'd do the best work of his life. You think Ricky wants people seeing him doing a bad job when there's a girl just got on the job around, doing better work and twice as fast? No way he could survive a loss of face like that. Ricky's your man."

"You think he's got a problem with women?"

"Nah, he likes women well enough. Just thinks he's better than 'em. Least that's my take. He's just proud, man."

Xander nodded, knowingly. "Okay. Meet me here tomorrow morning a half hour before everyone shows up."

Esteban looked up at Xander, confused and worried. "What'd I do?"

Xander laughed. "You're not being punished. Just trust me, okay?"

"All right man, you're the boss."

Xander smiled, waved distractedly at Esteban and went back to work.

----------

Faith looked around uncomfortably, hefted a dagger in her palm and launched it into the target. The straw dummy flew backwards a few feet before falling over and skidding to a stop.

"The center of balance is actually a bit to the left."

Faith whirled in place and saw the other witch – Tara – standing at the doorway of Buffy's workout room.

"What?" Faith asked.

"So it won't fall over?" Tara suggested. "Xander built it so if you hit it in the heart, it doesn't lose its balance."

"Xander built that?" Faith asked, pointing at the still-prone dummy.

Tara nodded, smiling. Faith thought there was almost a look of pride behind the smile, but that didn't make any sense so she dismissed it.

"He actually put a lot of this together. Cleaned up the pommel horse. Installed hooks for the weapons. Actually built a few of the book cases in the shop."

"Useful."

Tara nodded. "Giles designed most of it. Well, the weapons stuff. And Riley helped with some of the heavy lifting."

"Not B?"

Tara shook her head. "It was a surprise for her."

"Yeah. Everybody's always surprisin' her with happy shit."

Tara looked reproachful, but said nothing.

"What are you doing back here, anyway?" Faith asked.

"Just thought I'd see how you're doing. Xander and Willow should be here any minute, and then we'll probably start the meeting. Spike, too, actually."

Faith was confused. "We'll be starting Spike?"

Tara laughed. "No. He'll be here soon."

"Oh. Okay. I'll be out in a few, then."

Tara smiled shyly and went back into the shop. Faith strode over and picked up the dummy, pulled her knife from it and walked back to the throwing line. She hefted the dagger in her hand, feeling the weight of it.

Faith wound up to hurl the weapon at the dummy and stopped, mid-delivery. She tossed the knife back in the pile of weapons and strode out into the shop. She saw Tara at the table, reading quietly, and approached.

"What the hell was that about?" Faith demanded.

Tara looked up from her book, surprised. "Excuse me?"

"That. Back in there. What was that?"

Tara shook her head, a little bewildered. "I – I don't know –"

"What are you doing? Why are you talking to me? What's with treating me all nice and shit?"

The girl looked like she had no idea what to say. Faith was about to rip into her again when she was interrupted.

"That's enough, Faith," Giles said, in that tone of voice he had where he clearly wasn't messing around.

"Screw you, man. You got everyone in here messin' with my head." She was tired of everybody treating her like crap. She'd messed up. She knew that.

"Nobody is doing anything with your head, Faith. Tara was being friendly."

"Why the hell would she do that?"

"Because, very simply, she is a friendly young woman. Tara genuinely likes people… and believes people deserve a second chance." Giles removed his glasses and polished them as Faith shot a confused look back at the witch, who smiled hopefully up at her. Faith scowled.

"I don't th—"

"Hey, hey, hey," Xander said as he and Willow entered the store, ringing the bell over the door. "What's going on with the rowdy… uh… rioters? Okay, that was weak. Where's Ahn?"

Giles acknowledged their arrival with a simple nod.

"She's in the basement," Tara said, greeting the carpenter with a cheerful wave, and her girlfriend with a happy kiss.

"So, what's happening?" Xander asked, sitting across from Tara and Willow. "What's got our felon frowning?"

Faith glared at him, while everyone else looked surprised.

"Too much?" he asked.

"Only if you like your nuts where they are," Faith growled.

Xander visibly gulped, and turned to Giles. "So. We about ready to start?"

Giles sighed. "As soon as –"

"I don't care if it spices up your blood, Spike!" Anya yelled as she walked up from the basement. "It's stealing, and I won't stand for it."

"Neither shall I, I assure you," Giles said, turning his attention to the argument. "What has he been stealing?"

"Just pinchin' a bit of burba weed, Watcher," Spike said with a dismissive wave. "Not like you're movin' it anyway."

"That hardly seems the point."

"Yo, can we get this meeting going or whatever?" Faith asked. She was getting more and more antsy waiting around here.

"Why?" Willow asked. "Do you have somewhere else to be?"

Faith glared at the redhead who, Faith was pleased to see, shrank back into her chair.

"You know, I have it on good faith that if you make that face too much, it'll get stuck like that," Xander said. "Hehehe. Good Faith."

"It's very funny, sweetie," Anya said, pulling up a chair beside Xander. Spike hopped up on a counter and pulled a cigarette from the pocket of his jacket.

"Where's the bit?" he asked.

"No smoking," Giles said. "And Dawn is staying at Janice's for the evening."

"I'm picking her up after the meeting," Tara told him.

"I'm a little surprised," Xander said. "Dawn seemed to really want to be involved in all of this."

Giles nodded. "She still does. However, I'm told that we are up against a combination of ice cream, dancing and talking about boys."

Xander shook his head sadly. "Never stood a chance."

"That sounds like fun," Willow mused. "Well, not so much the boys part…" She grinned at Tara, who grinned right back.

"Can we get past the open-minded love-fest?" Faith asked, annoyed. "I got enough of that shit inside."

"I'm sorry, Faith," Giles said, a bit sarcastically. "I didn't realize our continuing friendships and lives were such an annoyance to you. Shall we get started then?"

"Hey," Spike protested. "I whinge on about you lot shutting up all the time!"

"Yes, Spike, but nobody cares in the least what you think."

Spike gaped. "And all of a sudden you care what Slutty McStabberson thinks?"

Every single eye in the shop turned and stared at him. Spike ran the sentence over in his mind again and slouched, dispirited. "Bloody hell. I've been infected with your speech patterns. I hate every single one of you."

Xander nodded at the vampire. "Right back atcha."

"We are here to discuss a time frame," Giles began. "A few subjects to go over. First, Xander, how will you be dealing with your work situation?"

"Ah," Xander said. "I'm going to give my two weeks notice tomorrow."

Willow turned in her chair. "You're quitting?"

Xander nodded. "We've got no idea how long we'll be gone. I can't just hang the guys out to dry like that. Gotta give 'em time to train my replacement."

"What the fuck?" Faith said. "You get me on and now you just hang me out to dry like that? Man all those guys fucking hate me, I'll be gone as soon as you are."

"Actu –"

"I can't believe this shit." Faith shot to her feet, sending her chair skittering across the floor. "You're fucking hanging me out to dry. Thanks for nothing, asshole."

"See?" Spike pointed his still unlit cigarette at Faith. "Why can't we have more entertainment like her? She hates all of you and she's hot."

Faith leapt over the table at Spike, only to be intercepted by Giles. She pulled up just short of ramming her hands through his chest.

"Loathe as I am to stop any harm coming to Spike," Giles said quietly, "I am rather fond of my shop, and not in any mood to clean up after a temper tantrum. Please sit down and allow Xander to finish."

Faith snarled at him a little, but backed away, retrieved her chair, and sat down. She was not happy.

"Xander?" Giles prompted.

Xander glanced sideways at Faith, who refused to look him in the eye. "Right. Um. As I was going to say, Esteban, the guy who's gonna replace me, really likes the work that you do. And unless there's a huge problem, the bosses take their cues on who stays and who goes from us lower management types. So. Unless you mess up, you're fine."

Faith scowled and looked away. She heard Giles sigh. "Anyway, the next –"

"This is the part where you apologize," Anya interrupted.

"Ahn," Xander said.

"No, Xander," Anya said. "You're always telling me that I need to apologize when I've said something inappropriate or hurtful, and what she said was both."

"Anya, sweetie," Xander said, raising his hand in a calming gesture, "it's okay."

"Why?" Anya asked. "Why does she get a different set of rules than the rest of us? Why does she get to say mean things and get away with it? Why does she get to just yell at people and I don't?"

"Anya," Giles began.

"No," Willow spoke up. She looked all pleased with herself. "It's a fair question. Faith overreacted, and she owes Xander an apology."

"Thank you." Anya nodded emphatically, and Willow grinned at her. Faith rolled her eyes at the pair of them. She figured those two probably spent their whole days gushing over what a great guy Xander was. Probably became best of friends bonding over how much they loved him.

Faith waved her hand dismissively. "Sorry," she grunted.

Anya grinned at Xander. "See? Results."

"Bet you never pull that shit with Buffy," Faith muttered.

"Buffy would never have said anything like that!" Willow defended.

"Well, maybe not with as much vulgarity," Anya allowed, "but she certainly snaps to judgment. Although, she probably would have apologized right off. And genuinely felt bad about having said it. I have a feeling that Faith's apology was somewhat insincere."

"Whatever," Faith said. "If all you're gonna do is talk about saving Queen B, I don't really need to be here. I'm gonna hit the streets and see how much damage I can do."

Faith strode out of the store. She wasn't surprised when nobody tried to stop her, nor when, from just outside the Magic Box, she heard a round of laughter. Figures they'd make fun of her.

'Screw them,' she thought, stalking off down the street. 'I'll make my own way in this town. I'll show them a real Slayer.'

It never occurred to her to wonder why she cared what they thought.

----------

End Chapter 10


	12. Chapter 11

Title: From Here to Serenity  
Author: Bastard Snow  
Rating: PG-13

Summary: Buffy's fall through Glory's portal took her somewhere nobody had ever imagined. Now, it's up to Willow and Xander to get her back.

Disclaimer: I don't own either of these.

Author's Notes: Much, much thanks to Drake, without whom this story would not exist. Also, obviously, thanks to Joss Whedon for coming up with two universes that have nothing to do with each other. Makes it a challenge to make them have everything to do with each other.

Feedback: Yes, please!

* * *

"What in the…" Mal trailed off as he entered the cargo bay and saw Xander and Book sparring with wooden swords. The two had worked up a good sweat and had an impressive rhythm going. Their weapons met frequently and viciously.

They both had bruises raising on their bodies, but Book's were more numerous, though none of them seemed particularly painful.

As Mal watched, Xander spun around, blocked a downswing from Book's sword, grabbed the blade and pulled it towards his side and punched Book in the kidney.

"Hey!" Mal shouted. Book looked up at him and took a forearm to the back of the head for his trouble.

"Ah, Mal it was just gettin' good again!" Jayne yelled. Mal looked up to the catwalk to find most of his crew sitting there, watching the fight.

"Again?" Mal asked, pointing to Xander. "He cheated!"

"No I didn't," Xander said, saluting Book with the sword and sitting on a box. He picked up a bottle of water and downed half of it in one go.

"You punched him in the kidney!" Mal pointed out. "In a sword fight."

"So?" Xander asked.

"So that's what the swords are for," Mal said. "It's cheating, otherwise."

Xander laughed.

"I'm a little surprised at you, Captain," Book said.

"Why's that?"

"Because we weren't fencing, we were fighting," Book told him.

Understand blossomed in Mal's eyes. "Oh. Didn't know that."

"World of difference," Xander said.

"What do you mean?" Kaylee called down from the catwalk.

"Captain?" Xander asked, deferring from him.

"It means, Kaylee, that if someone else is fencin' you, and you're fighting them, you maybe got an advantage," Mal said.

"Why's that?" Kaylee asked.

"Because when he parries and thrusts and blocks, you can lean over and kick him in the kneecap," Xander explained. He tilted his head towards Book. "Or punch him in the kidney."

"But wait, ain't that cheatin', like the cap'n said?"

Book shook his head. "It wasn't cheating here because we were both fighting, not fencing."

"If we were fencing, I'd have gotten maybe one hit in. I'm not that good with a sword," Xander told them.

"And in real life, it ain't cheating because when you're trying to survive, there's very little that is," Mal added. He turned back to Book and Xander. "Any reason you chose now to beef up on your fighting skills?"

"I should think that obvious, captain. We are heading towards a war zone. We wish to be prepared," Book told him.

Mal raised an eyebrow at him. "I was under the impression weren't no way to be prepared."

"Not in any real way, certainly," Book said. "Five hundred years is a long time to be without communication. We have no idea what to expect."

"Yeah," Xander said, "but fighting is a pretty good bet."

Mal shook his head. "Anyhow, I come down to ask if y'all got a way to work on finding your friend once we get there."

Seeing the fighting was over for the time being, Jayne and Kaylee got up and walked off to their own chores.

"Work on it?" Xander asked. "Um, I certainly don't. Willow, maybe."

"But your girl's got no… radio tag, or anything that we could track?"

Xander laughed. "No, she's not a humpback whale or anything. Just a girl."

"Well, not just." Book smiled at Xander.

"No," Xander admitted. "But for the purposes of the search."

"Whatever," Mal said. "Where's your friend at? Need to see if she can work on this."

"Why the rush?" Book asked.

Mal rolled his eyes. "You yourself told us that they destroyed the last fleet went after 'em. We're just one ship. I want in and outta there soon as can be. Clean yourself up and find your girl, I'll be in the mess."

Fifteen minutes later, Mal sat in the mess having just listened to Willow's magical reasons why, not only could she not get a head start on finding Buffy (something about that some barrier around Earth) but that once they did get there, it would probably take a couple of days to find her anyway.

"So let me get this straight," Mal said, holding one finger in the air. "Not only can you not do this now, nor even make preparations, but once we get there, we're gonna be flyin' around not far out of atmo, like to be in range of all manner of nasty demonic missiles, for a few days while you look for your friend?"

"Well," Willow said, "we could probably land."

Mal blinked at them. "God, I'm happy."

Willow shrugged. "Sorry. It can't be helped."

"You can't even try?" Mal asked.

"Well, I suppose I could," Willow said, "but I doubt anything will have changed."

----------

"What's she doing to my kitchen floor?" Mal asked. He was standing off to one side of the mess, near the recently moved table. Willow had drawn a circle in the middle of the kitchen floor, set up a series of five candles around it and was sitting in the middle.

"This is what's involved in her magic stuff," Xander said. He was sitting on top of the table.

"She's gotta ruin my floor for magic?" Mal asked.

Xander rolled his eyes. "It'll come off, it's chalk."

"Why ain't she doin' this in her room? It's not gonna get all… sexy is it?"

"If it were –"

"I can hear you," Willow said, startling the captain. She opened her eyes and looked over at the two of them. "Do you guys mind? I mean, I'm trying to concentrate here."

"Sorry, sorry," Xander said. "We'll go."

"We will?" Mal asked. "I'm not much for taking orders on my ship."

Willow whipped her head around and glared at him. Mal shrunk back into himself and shuffled out of the kitchen, sliding the door shut after Xander followed him out. "She always scary like that?" Mal asked.

"No, she just gets a little intense about the magic, and about finding Buffy," Xander explained. The two men walked down the stairs toward the infirmary.

"Been meanin' to ask you about that," Mal said. "Buffy?"

"Yeah, what about her?" Xander asked.

"No, the name. Buffy. How'd she come by that?"

Xander shrugged. "Her parents named her. That's how most people get their names."

"Yeah, but, a name like Buffy…"

"You've got a girl named River, a guy named Jayne and another girl named Kaywinnit Lee. You're worried about Buffy?"

Mal thought about it for a second. "Fair enough. So what's she doin' in there, anyway?"

Xander shrugged. "Magic stuff. I never got too interested in that section, except for this one time where we had to… join our essences or whatever. Oh, and that time they had to put me back together."

"Put you back together?" Mal asked.

Xander nodded. "This demon had a stick that shot a glowy thing, split me into two parts. They had to put me back into just the one me."

"You lead a very odd life."

"Tell me about it."

Mal sighed. "Any idea how long she's gonna take?"

Xander shrugged. "Anywhere from a couple minutes to a few hours. Just depends on… what she has to do, I suppose."

Mal nodded. "Only got myself to blame for this one."

----------

"So nothing?" Mal asked.

"Absolutely no change from the last time I tried," Willow said. "It's exactly the same. Which makes sense, because when I followed the trail to this dimension last time, it was to this time frame. So… no surprise."

Mal shook his head. "And there ain't nothin' else you can do."

Willow shrugged. "Sorry."

"Damn," he said, heading out of the mess. "Damn, damn, damn."

Xander passed Mal on the way into the mess. "Nothing?" Xander asked. Mal grunted. Willow shook her head. She got Xander to help her erase the chalk on the floor and move the table and chairs back to their proper place. They sat down around the table, and Xander looked up.

"So what do you think we should do?" Willow asked. "I mean, Captain Reynolds is obviously not happy about all this, and we're going to have to figure out something if all these demons are ruling Earth. I mean, if they took out that whole armada, we can't just… assume that they're going to let us in, right?"

She waited a moment for Xander to respond, but he was still gazing upwards. "Xander?" she asked.

"Do you know how to turn off the lights here?" he asked. Willow shook her head. Xander frowned told her to hang on a minute and ran off into the ship. He returned a couple minutes later and grabbed Willow's hand. "Come on," he said.

Xander led Willow up forward through the kitchen, past the crew quarters and into the bridge. "Oh, hello," Wash said. "Fancy seeing you up here. What's going on?"

"Not really sure," Willow said. "Xander?"

Xander grinned. "Wash, can you turn the lights down in here?"

Wash raised an eyebrow at him, but complied.

"What's going on?" Willow asked.

Xander sighed and pointed to the view ports at the front of the ship. "That," he said.

Willow looked out the window and saw nothing. "What?" she asked, turning to look at her friend. "There's nothing there." She saw Xander's eyes glaze over as he stared off into the distance. She looked at Wash, who was smiling.

"There is," he said. She looked at him questioningly.

"I don't see anything," she said.

"That's because you're looking wrong," Wash said. "Don't look with your eyes."

Willow turned back to the view port and looked out. All she saw were a bunch of stars. No ships, no planets, no moons, not even space dust. Just –

Willow gasped.

"There it is," said Wash. He leaned back in his chair, his arms resting firmly behind his head. Willow and Xander stood there in silence for a few minutes, just gazing out at the stars, losing themselves in the vastness of space. Xander grasped Willow's hand, and the redhead jumped.

"Will," he said, his voice filled with the awe of a child, "we're in space. We're on a spaceship, and we're in space."

Willow looked at him and covered her mouth, hiding a smile that was filled with more glee than she cared to admit. She turned back to the view port, and just stood, looking out the window.

Almost an hour later, Mal came into the cockpit. "Hey," he said. "What's going on?"

"They realized they were on a spaceship for the first time," Wash said.

Mal nodded shortly. "Come on, you two. We've got things to discuss."

Neither Willow nor Xander responded.

"Wash, stop the ship," he said. That got their attention.

"Captain?" Wash asked.

"Stop the ship," Mal repeated.

"Why?" asked Willow.

"Y'all best come back to the mess," he said. "You, too, Wash. Seems we got more things need discussing."

"Things?" Xander asked.

"You'll find out once we get there. I don't wanna be swaying minds one way or the other on this. But I do got one question needs answering."

"What's that?" Willow asked.

"Y'all said you don't know where on Earth-That-Was your friend is, but you know she's there. How do you know if she's still alive?"

Xander and Willow exchanged a glance.

Xander turned back to Mal. "We've got confirmation from a… reliable source."

"How reliable?" asked Wash.

Xander sighed. "There's a saying from our time, 'From your lips to God's ear.' Have you heard it?"

Mal nodded. "Sure," said Wash.

Xander shrugged. "Well. Like that, but in reverse."

----------

"If there's one thing we can tell you about demons, it's that they lie," Willow said. "Shepherd, you said that the demons came back here in one ship and said that they would kill all humans if we ever ventured back to Earth right?"

"That is what I was told, yes," Book agreed.

"So, if they could kill everyone, and they'd already driven us off twice, why wouldn't they?" Xander asked.

"Earth was enough, they said," Book told them.

Willow shook her head. "Nothing is ever enough. They want to rule all of creation. Well, the more ambitious ones do. The others are happy enough being minions, or just left alone. But the big ones? The ones that are going to have enough power to wipe out a fleet of well-armed space ships and the knowledge to send them back where they came from? They want it all."

"So what are you thinking?" Mal asked. "That they didn't wipe the fleet out?"

Willow sighed. "No, they probably did. But I'm willing to bet they took huge losses. And remember, when your ancestors evacuated Earth 500 years ago, there were still a few billion people there."

"That's true," Book said. "But the demons were so vicious, and had already killed so many people. Surely –"

"Slayers," Xander interrupted.

"Excuse me?" Inara asked.

"Slayers. Shepherd, you said that in this timeline, every single potential Slayer was activated to be an actual Slayer, right?"

"That's correct," Book said.

"And they were all left on Earth?" Xander asked.

"I believe so."

"Okay," he said, his mind clearly gathering steam. "Well, the Slayers, they're tough. And with all the magic adepts, and just plain scary-ass people in the world, they could have held out a long time."

"But the wizards and witches, mages and warlocks, Slayers, demon hunters and all the armies in the world were already fighting the demons," Book said. "And we had still lost billions of people."

"But it's easier to protect a smaller number of people," Simon pointed out.

"But not for five hundred years," Zoë put in. "There's no way they could have lasted this long."

"But they didn't need to last five hundred," Xander said. "They needed to last sixty. Three billion people… say, cut it by 90 percent, even. That's uh… three million?"

"Three hundred million," Willow corrected.

Xander blinked at her. "Wow. Uh, right. Three hundred million people last 60 years. And then in comes the fleet, blasts the ever loving crap out of most of the demons, but is, in the end, defeated. And some demons get on that ship, figure out how to send it back where it came from, and deliver a warning."

"To cover up that they were hurt," Willow said.

"And then the guys still on Earth fight back!" Kaylee said, glomming on to the idea. She grinned at Simon, who smiled back.

"And maybe there are few enough demons now that they can really make an impact," Inara said, nodding. "There could be millions of survivors left on Earth."

"More than a billion," Xander said, smiling. He was honestly excited at the prospect of finding a rejuvenated Earth. "If they had lots of kids."

"Now hold on a ruttin' minute," Jayne said. "These demonses and what not, they breed too?"

"Uh, typically, yes," Willow said. "Why?"

"Well, then, they had plenty of time to infest the place too. There could be billions o' baby demons down there too. And maybe the Shepherd's fleet didn't know where to aim their weapons, and ended up killin' a buncha human folk, too. Could be we're headed for nothin' but a planet full o' hell and death. Hell, we don't even know any humans survived."

Nobody spoke for a minute as they all soaked in the idea of billions of demons overrunning the Earth, or of Jayne coming up with a logical, plausible argument.

"Could be that's so," Wash said, finally. "But I say we go for it. Nobody else knows that Earth is even really out there. This could be the best thing to happen to the human race since we left Earth."

"Or the worst," said Simon.

"Well, I say it's worth the risk," Wash said.

They all looked around the room at one another for a minute, nobody saying a word, silently taking in each other's moods.

"Little one?" Mal asked, turning to River. "You ain't said a word in this. Seems to me you maybe got more invested here than most. You got any thoughts?"

River looked up at the captain. "Have to find out sometime," she said.

Mal nodded. "That's what I thought. Okay. Wash, put us back on course for Earth. Harris?"

"Me? Uh… yeah?"

Mal looked at him gravely. "Think you can give those of us that need 'em fightin' lessons?"

Xander eyed Mal wearily. "I'm not sure that's a great idea."

"Why's that?" Mal asked.

Xander shrugged. "Well… I'm twenty years old. I'm in what is close to the best shape of my life and I've been fighting pretty much constantly for the past 5 years."

"That's… kind of what I was banking on," said Mal.

"Right," Xander said. "But earlier today, I barely held my own against an out-of-practice 60-year-old man. I just think… I might not be the best guy for this job."

Mal considered that for a moment. "Preacher? What do you say?"

Book sighed. "I still think this trip is foolhardy, and the risks are far more serious than the possible rewards. That said… if we're to have some kind of chance here, we must all be as prepared as possible. Yes," he said. "I will teach you."

"Great," said Mal. "You take the folk as need it down to the hold; we'll get things prepped to –"

"No, Mal," Book interrupted. "You need to come, too. Jayne and Zoë as well."

"Me?" Jayne said, taking offense. "I know how to fight!"

When Book smiled at him, there was a sinister glint in his eye. "Not like this you don't."

----------

End Chapter 11


	13. Chapter 12

Title: From Here to Serenity  
Author: Bastard Snow  
Rating: PG-13

Summary: Buffy's fall through Glory's portal took her somewhere nobody had ever imagined. Now, it's up to Willow and Xander to get her back.

Disclaimer: I don't own either of these.

Author's Notes: Much, much thanks to Drake, without whom this story would not exist. Also, obviously, thanks to Joss Whedon for coming up with two universes that have nothing to do with each other. Makes it a challenge to make them have everything to do with each other.

Feedback: Yes, please!

* * *

"So I guess tomorrow is it," Anya said, her arms folded across her chest.

Xander smiled at her and nodded. He picked up another stack of folded shirts and put them in his suitcase.

"And you're going to be back when?" she asked.

Xander sighed. "I still don't know, any more than I did four hours ago, or yesterday, or last week, Ahn. But I'll be back."

"I still don't understand why we can't get married before you leave."

Xander laughed. "You mean other than the fact that it's 2 am and there's no way we could find a justice of the peace to do the ceremony?"

"Yes! I'm sure we could find one, if we went far enough. Las Vegas is only a few hours away!"

Xander sat on the bed and patted the mattress next to him. Anya grudgingly sat next to him, and Xander wrapped his arm around her shoulders. "Ahn, we've been over this. We're not getting married until after we get Buffy back. I promise you I will not die before we get married. I will come back, in one piece, and we will plan the hell out of this wedding."

He stroked her hair lovingly and looked in her eyes. "We're gonna get married. Believe that. But it's not happening now if for no other reason than Buffy would kill me if I got married and she wasn't invited."

Anya sighed. "I know. I just hate waiting."

"I know you do, sweetie. But it's all going to work out fine."

"You promise?"

Xander smiled and kissed her forehead. "I promise." He stood up and started packing more clothes into his suitcase as Anya headed into the bathroom, and he heard the shower turn on. He filled up the suitcase, zipped it up and placed it on the floor next to a couple of other bags and wondered, not for the first time, how exactly one packed for 'the future.'

Xander looked up from his bags just as Anya stepped out of the bathroom wearing… well, nothing. He scanned his eyes down her body greedily. With a determined look on her face, she pointed to the bed.

"Orgasms. Now."

Xander saluted and jumped into the bed. He loved it when she got assertive.

----------

"I know, we're late, sorry, sorry," Willow apologized as she, Tara and Dawn bustled into the Magic Box hauling Willow's luggage with them. She looked up to see Giles leaning back in a chair at the table, sipping a cup of coffee from the Espresso Pump.

"No need to worry," he said. "You're the first to arrive."

"The first?" Tara asked. "But where are –" Willow nudged Tara with her elbow. "Oh. Right."

"We should get set up," Willow said.

"What?" Dawn asked. "Where are Anya and Xander?"

"I'm sure they'll be here any time now," Tara assured her, smiling calmly.

"Yeah," Willow agreed, almost believably. "Any time. Dawnie, do you want to help me get the symbols aligned correctly, and circles drawn, and candles placed and everything?"

"Sure!" Dawn said, ecstatic to be allowed to help in some way. She picked up Willow's sketch of the designs that needed to be placed on the floor, grabbed a compass and oriented herself toward magnetic north and got to work.

Tara sat next to Giles. "Is Faith coming?"

"If she awakens in time, I imagine she might," he said. "Though she's said nothing to me about it. Not that she's overly talkative with anybody these days. I do sometimes worry that she's purposefully cutting herself off from us, though I suppose I can hardly blame her, what with… circumstances being what they are."

Tara nodded. "Maybe I should call, see if she wants to?" she asked. "Sometimes… people like to be invited."

Giles sipped his coffee again, considering the idea. "I'm not actually certain she's ever answered the telephone."

"Sorry we're late!" Xander said as he dragged his luggage into the store. "Sorry, sorry. Got tied up."

Giles and Tara exchanged a quick glance, but said nothing.

"Xander?" Tara said. "Can I borrow your car for a few minutes? I have a quick errand to run."

Xander looked surprised, but shrugged and tossed his keys to her.

"Sweetie?" Willow asked.

Tara smiled at her and rose. "Just something I need to do."

A few minutes later, Tara was standing outside Giles's door, which she had just knocked on, wondering what she was going to say. The door opened and a half-dressed Faith squinted at her.

"What?" Faith asked.

"Oh, hi," Tara said, a little nervously, averting her eyes from Faith's scantily clad form. "I um… was just wondering if you were coming down to the shop. For the ritual?"

Faith rubbed her eyes. "That's now?"

Tara nodded. "Soon."

Faith turned from the door and waved Tara inside. Tara followed the Slayer inside and waited as Faith went back to her room.

"So what is this thing, anyway?" Faith called out.

"It's um… a ritual to – to send Xander and Willow to a um. A different dimension. The one where Buffy is."

"Can't just bring her back?" Faith asked.

"No," Tara said, shaking her head though Faith couldn't see it. "There's a… a magical barrier around Earth in that dimension. Willow can't penetrate it."

Faith snickered as she re-entered the living room. "Lack of penetration… sounds like it's right up her alley."

Tara blushed a bright red, but smiled shyly.

"So what's the deal? If they can't get to Earth, why are they going at all?"

"There are um… other humans. In a different galaxy. They're going to steal a ship a-and take it to Earth to bring her home."

"Damn," Faith said, shaking her head. She grabbed her cigarettes and slid them into her pocket. "Heaven and Earth, right?"

"Pardon?" Tara asked. Faith led Tara out of the apartment and locked the door behind them. Once outside, she lit up a cigarette.

"Those two, Red and Harris, they'd move Heaven and Earth to help B."

Tara smiled and nodded. "It's nice."

"Nice?" Faith asked acidly. "It's disgusting. They're like lap dogs, doing whatever she says."

"No –"

"I mean, they're somewhat mature, semi-adults. You'd think they'd grow some stones over the years." She spat on the sidewalk and tapped out some ashes. "It's pathetic."

"It's not like that," Tara said.

"And you're okay with this?" Faith asked, ignoring Tara's protestations. "Your girl hopping dimensions to go rescue some little hottie damsel in distress?"

"Why are you doing this?" Tara asked.

"Doing what?" Faith asked.

Tara frowned. "Being mean. Trying to make things sound worse than they are. What's the point of it?"

"Hey, I'm just telling it –"

"No, you're not. You're purposely distorting the truth, to try to be hurtful."

Faith shook her head. "No I'm –"

"Yes, you are," Tara said. "I don't know what your issues with Buffy are, but Willow and Xander are giving up a significant part of their lives to go help their friend. Because they love her. I would never begrudge Willow that, and even though she doesn't seem like it, Anya gets it too."

"Anya ain't happy about it."

"You think I am?" Tara asked. "They're going off to a different dimension to put their lives on the line, they have no idea what they'll face or how long they'll be gone. They know just barely enough about the place to get by. I may support what they're doing… but I'm not happy they have to. "

"I thought that… goddess woman, I dunno, implanted them with all the know-how they'd need."

"They'd need to pass in the society," Tara said. "But she didn't tell them how to find Buffy, how to get to where they need to go, who to trust, how to do… much of anything. Just the basics. And the ability to get there."

Faith flicked the butt of her cigarette into a sewer drain and followed Tara to Xander's car. "That kind of sucks," she said.

Tara nodded.

----------

Jonathan Levinson looked up from Willow's laptop. He smiled at Willow's girlfriend – and that was something he really hadn't expected – and started to wave when his eye was caught by the woman behind her.

"Hi, Jonathan," Tara said, smiling at him.

"Hi, Tara," Jonathan said. He took one more look at the raven-haired beauty who had walked into the store and set back to work. Xander, Willow and Mr. Giles acknowledged both of them before setting back to their current tasks.

"Thanks again for doing this, Jon," Willow said, looking up from the floor where she and Buffy's sister were drawing some sort of ancient, magical symbols of great power. "I couldn't have finished the program in time if you hadn't agreed to help."

Jonathan shrugged and smiled sheepishly. "It's no problem. It's not like I was really doing anything this summer. You remember Tucker Wells?"

"Sure," Xander said. He was over to one side of the shop with Mr. Giles, discussing weaponry. "He tried to sic some Hell Hounds on the prom Senior year."

"Really? I never heard about that."

"Buffy did her thing," Willow explained.

"Oh," Jonathan said. "Well, anyway, his brother looked me up a couple of days ago, but I think he just wanted to play video games or something. But this is way more important."

"Oh, I didn't know he had a brother," Willow said.

"He's kind of a nerd," Jonathan said, "but all right in the end, I guess."

He missed the amused glance between Willow and Xander.

"Aren't you that kid tried to off himself with a high-powered rifle?" asked the dark-haired girl.

Everyone looked at her, horrified on his behalf.

"You really want to get into past indiscretions?" Xander asked.

"Wasn't sayin' nothing," Faith protested, "just tryin' to remember where I know the kid from."

"A little tact can go a long way," Willow muttered.

Everyone looked like they were about to drop it, but Jonathan decided to be brave.

"I did try that," Jonathan said. "I was… depressed about my life, and I thought nobody cared about me. But, Buffy stopped me, and I've gotten some good help since then."

"Well, I'm glad you're better," Willow told him, smiling.

Jonathan went back to working some bugs out of his program, trying, now that he thought about it, to remember where he knew this girl from. She looked awfully familiar.

Jonathan rewrote a few more lines of code, scratched his head and saved his work, then opened the program itself. A few test scenarios later, he raised his arms victoriously.

"It works!" he announced.

"You fixed it?" Willow asked. "That's great!"

"Yeah, you wanna come try it?"

"That's okay, I trust you," Willow said. "Hey, you wanna stick around for the ritual tonight? There'll be fireworks."

"Yeah, Jon," Xander said. "And if something goes wrong, there's always you to blame."

"He's joking," Willow assured Jonathan, sending a glare at her best friend. "It'll be fun."

Jonathan thought about it for a moment. He still had Andrew Wells's phone number, and the guy said he had some really good homemade D&D adventures. So he could either do that, or stay here with four beautiful women and make magic.

"Sure," he said. "I'd love to."

And then it hit him. He turned to the still-unnamed dark haired girl. "Didn't you used to be in the coma ward at the hospital? How'd that happen?"

Xander groaned. Jonathan looked at him, confused.

"What?" he asked. The others were either shaking their heads or avoiding eye contact with him. "What'd I say?"

----------

It was time. All the preparations were done, symbols were drawn and goodbyes had been both said and kissed. Xander and Willow stood on opposite sides of the circle, nodded at each other and stepped inside of it.

Xander looked around at the others, readjusted his grip on one of his bags and smiled at their friends.

"We'll be fine," he said, his voice more confident than he felt. "Don't let the world end while we're gone."

Suddenly Faith stepped forward from the rear of the shop.

"Hey," she said. Xander cocked an eyebrow at her. Her expression was serious.

"Yeah?" he asked.

Faith licked her lips a little. She nodded once. "Good luck."

Xander smiled at her, then turned to Willow. "Let's do this."

"Wait!" Dawn said. She rushed forward and handed Xander a plush pig. "Just um. Just bring her home?"

"We will, Dawn," Xander promised. Her mouth quirked into a small smile, and she stepped back.

Willow took Xander's free hand in hers, blew a quick kiss to Tara.

"This is going to be quick," she said. "All the details are in the symbols. They just need to be activated and we'll be off. You ready?"

Xander squeezed her hand and smiled. "I'm ready."

Willow took a deep breath and uttered one word. "Citare."

"What does that mean?" Xander asked.

A flash of light erupted in front of them, and they were suddenly in a large grassy area in the middle of night.

"It means start," Willow said.

A huge spaceship roared up into the sky, and Xander squeezed Willow's hand again, just to be sure of her.

"Guess we're there."

----------

End Chapter 12


	14. Chapter 13

Title: From Here to Serenity

Author: Bastard Snow

Rating: PG-13

Summary: Buffy's fall through Glory's portal took her somewhere nobody had ever imagined. Now, it's up to Willow and Xander to get her back.

Disclaimer: I don't own either of these.

Author's Notes: Much, much thanks to Drake, without whom this story would not exist. Also, obviously, thanks to Joss Whedon for coming up with two universes that have nothing to do with each other. Makes it a challenge to make them have everything to do with each other.

Feedback: Yes, please!

* * *

Malcolm Reynolds fell to the floor with a loud grunt and, not for the first time, silently cursed Shepherd Book for pairing him with Zoë. He knew how to fight fine, but his second-in-command was just too damn fast. He stood up at Book's prodding and was getting ready to set himself up again when a number of alarms began blaring. The ship shook. 

"Mal, you better get up here!" Wash yelled over the intercom. Mal was off in a flash, headed straight for the cockpit.

Thirty seconds later, Mal was looking over Wash's shoulder. "What is it?"

"I'm not sure," he said. "We received a wave just about the time this started."

"A wave?" Mal asked. "Out here?"

Wash shrugged. "I was surprised too, but then I got distracted."

The ship shuddered again, and then stopped rumbling all together. As if…

"Does that sound like the engine turned off?" Mal asked.

Wash tested his controls and punched a few buttons. "We've definitely come out of light speed." He shook his head. "I'm getting nothing. Sub-light engines are fine, but we can't engage FTL."

Mal turned to head back to the engine room, but Kaylee ran up the stairs and into the cockpit just at that moment.

"We're stopped," she said. "Engine shut down. I can't find a reason for it, though. Everything's to be in workin' order… just won't go."

"Captain?" Book asked, stepping into the cockpit.

"We're stopped," Mal said, his arms crossed over his chest.

"I'm aware. Is somebody trying to contact us?"

Mal turned at looked at him. "And how in the sphincter of hell did you know that?"

"The same way in the sphincter of hell I know anything, Captain. Can I answer the wave?" Book said.

Mal glared at him. "You knew this was gonna happen?"

Book paused. "I had an idea it might."

Mal set his jaw sternly. "Next time something like this happens, preacher, and you don't tell me up front? You and me are gonna have words." He stepped out of Book's way and looked down into the hallway. The rest of the crew was standing there. He ducked his head into the hallway.

"We stopped?" Zoë asked.

"Yep," Mal said. "Workin' on it. Everybody… go about your business."

"Cap'n, we're in the middle of nowhere. What business?"

"I don't know, just… go play a game, or somethin'. You're makin' me nervous all standin' there. Do something."

The crowd slowly dispersed, and Mal stepped back into the cockpit. Book was sitting in Wash's chair, his ID card inserted in the reader. Mal raised an eyebrow at Wash, who shrugged and shook his head.

"Shepherd?"

"Just a moment," Book said. He reached up and wiped off the small camera as a man's face appeared on screen. The man looked unhappy.

"Admiral Brubaker," Book said, smiling. "Good evening."

"Sir," the admiral said. "I'd like to say it's good to see you again, but I'm afraid I have to ask why you're on a transport ship headed out this way."

Wash looked at Mal and mouthed 'Again?'

"I'm not here against my will, if that's what you're worried about," Book said.

"No, sir, I didn't imagine that you would be. Do you mind telling me what you're doing?"

Book smiled at the camera. "You know why you're out here?"

"I do," said Brubaker.

Book nodded. "Then you know why I'm going."

Brubaker rubbed his chin. "I was made to believe that you… and your associates… were against such a course of action."

"Things change," said Book. "I'm going."

"I'm afraid I can't allow that, Derria. You know I can't."

"What are your feelings on the matter, Jonah?" Book asked.

Mal and Wash looked at each other again. 'Jonah?' mouthed Mal.

"My feelings are unimportant."

"There was never a case when that was less true," said Book. "Every man's life has defining moments, Jonah, whether they recognize it or not. This is one of yours."

Brubaker leaned back in his chair. "I am not without sympathy towards your goal, Derria, but I have my orders."

"And I have my faith."

Brubaker smiled. "You're going."

"I am," said Book. "We are."

The admiral pointed to somebody off screen and nodded.

"Very well, sir. We will have no choice but to stop you by force. Prepare to be engaged." The admiral swiped his hand across his throat to tell his communications officer to cut the transmission, but as he did so, Mal would swear he saw the man wink.

Book stood up from the pilot's seat and allowed Wash back in.

"Captain, I think you'd better have everybody strap in. We're going to need some fancy flying to get out of this," Book told them.

"Did he wink at you?" Mal asked.

"Jonah's an old friend," Book said. "One of the best men I know. But he has his orders and he has to follow them."

Mal shook his head. "Uh uh. No way. We're just a transport, ain't even got no weapons."

Book shook his head. "It won't matter. We'll out maneuver them and then engage the FTL drive."

"That still ain't working," Kaylee said. "Don't seem to be nothin' wrong with it, neither."

"I know," Book said. "But there's a workaround. Captain, I truly suggest you get people strapped down."

"You couldn't have done this before we started runnin' out here?" Mal asked. "Before we came up against a gorram Alliance Cruiser? You didn't think this might be something to bring up, and maybe save ourselves the trouble?"

Book looked up at Mal, his eyes narrow. "Some secrets are not mine to tell, Captain, and I will not violate oaths unless I am forced to. That doesn't change. Ever."

The two men stared at each other for almost a minute.

"So um… am I taking us?" Wash asked. After a moment, Book turned to look out the front of the ship and Mal headed back to make sure everyone was secured. Book leaned over Wash's shoulder. "See that little dot there that's just a bit too big to be a star?"

Wash squinted. "Yeah."

Book stood and pushed Kaylee out the door, following her back towards the engine room. "Stay away from that, and anything coming from it."

* * *

"What's going on?" Xander called as Kaylee ran through the mess. The captain had just run through and told them all to sit down and strap in. He, along with Willow and Simon, had. The ship rocked to starboard. 

"Little glitch, nothing to worry about!" she answered, barely keeping her balance and not turning to look at them.

"We've got it under control," Book said. He walked through the room calmly, but with a purposeful stride. "No need to worry."

Xander and Willow looked at each other. "Problem," they said. They unstrapped themselves and headed to the front of the ship.

"I don't think you're supposed to be doing that," Simon called after them.

"What's going on?" Willow asked as they stepped into the cockpit. Wash pulled hard to the left as a couple of Alliance ships passed by.

"That was close," Xander said.

Wash shook his head. "Not really. They didn't even fire this time. Are you two supposed to be up here?"

"Captain told us to strap in," Xander said, pushing Willow toward the co-pilot's seat. "He didn't specifically say not to strap in up here."

"Fine for her," Wash said, pulling hard back to the right. "What about you?"

"I'll be all right," Xander assured him.

"You die and Mal's going to be very upset."

"Then I'll just have to not die," Xander said.

The ship rocked again as a missile exploded a hundred feet away from it.

"Anything we can do to help?" Willow asked.

"Not unless you can get rid of these guys," Wash said. He pulled the ship around again, and Xander saw the four ships that were dogging them.

"This sucks," said Xander, steadying himself against the doorframe, his knuckles white with the strain.

"Not as much as it could," said Wash. He nodded out the window. "That Alliance cruiser out there carries about fifty of these things."

"So either they're going easy on us," said Willow, "or they're toying with us."

"Pretty much."

"What are you doing up here?" Mal asked, stepping into the cockpit. "Wash, why didn't you get them out of here?"

"I don't know if you noticed," Wash said, swerving the ship away from yet another missile, "but I'm a little busy at the moment."

"We wanted to see if we could help," Willow said. "And I could push those missiles away from us, but they don't actually seem to be trying to hit us."

The ship rocked again as the missile exploded.

"You might want to get rid of 'em anyway," Xander said. "Shrapnel punctures the hull and we're just a floating morgue. Right, Captain?"

Mal nodded. "Could be that's so." He turned to Willow. "Those missiles get too close, you do what you can. Hopefully it won't be a problem. Shepherd said it should just take them another minute."

Wash shook his head. "Another minute and we could be dust."

Mal smiled confidently. "Book and Kaylee'll get us through."

The lights on Wash's console died. Serenity was drifting.

* * *

"We're gonna be dust," Shepherd Book muttered. 

"No we're not!" Kaylee protested. "You'll get it!"

Book pulled a couple of wires from under the FTL drive and twisted them together. "It's like I'm fifteen and boosting hovercarts again," he said. Book glanced up at Kaylee. "You didn't hear that."

"I didn't hear nothin'," Kaylee said.

"Duct tape?" Book asked. Kaylee handed him a roll of the silvery tape and sat back. She wasn't used to having anybody else work on her engines, and she didn't really like it, either.

"Almost got it, I think," Book said. He wiped his hands on his pants and slid out from under the engine and nodded. "Hit it."

Kaylee pressed a button, and they waited for the drive to light up. Nothing happened.

"Damn," Book muttered.

"Shepherd, come out from under there," Kaylee said. "Tell me what you're tryin' to do, and I'll do it. Nobody knows Serenity like I do."

Book looked up at her and looked ready to explain, but was distracted by the sound of footsteps running towards the engine room. A moment later, Xander appeared.

"Wash's controls died," he said. "We're sitting ducks, and –"

An explosion rocked the ship and threw them all hard to the left. Kaylee fell back against the wall, and Xander managed to stop himself just short of slamming into her. Mostly.

"Oh, God! Sorry!" he said, backing away and pulling his hand away from her like he'd been bit.

Kaylee waved him off. "No harm done," she said, rubbing her boob. "Not much, anyways. Shepherd, you best let me in there."

Book nodded and stood away from the engine. Kaylee slid under it with a practiced ease. "Shepherd, you got things all messed up under here." She pulled out her pliers and a wrench and undid everything the Shepherd had done. "Looks like you were tryin' to bypass the primary engine kill," she said.

"Yes! That's it exactly," Book said. Kaylee shook her head and clicked her tongue.

"I think that means you did it wrong," said Xander.

"This is going to take me a minute," Kaylee said. She disconnected the buffer, then re-routed the power from the –

"What's an engine kill?" Xander asked. "It doesn't actually, like, kill the engine, does it? Because that seems… like a bad idea."

"Not kill in the sense of it'll never work again," Book said. "Kill in the sense of stop. Kill the power, for instance."

"Thought so," Xander said. He fell into silence and Kaylee regained her concentration. She re-routed the power from the secondary converter to the primary stabilizer coil, then disconnected the dump wire from the –

"What use would an engine kill have, anyway? Other than, apparently, this?" Xander asked.

"Well, it has any number of uses," Book said. "In fact, it's one of the primary means by which a total engine failu–"

"Hey!" Kaylee shouted at them, sliding out from under the engine. "I ain't never done this before, and we're like to die if I do it wrong!"

Xander and Book looked ashamed. Kaylee sighed. "Y'all can stay, but I need some peace and quiet." she said.

"I'll be quiet," Book said, nodding.

Xander grinned. "I'll be peace."

Kaylee chuckled at him, slid back under then engine and got to work.

* * *

Book stumbled back into the cockpit. He turned to Willow. "Xander's looking for you." 

Willow slipped out of the cockpit and headed down the hall toward the kitchen.

"Can you call them up?" Book asked of Wash.

Wash eyed Mal for approval, which Mal granted with a nod. Wash pressed a few buttons, and slid out of the seat. Book replaced him and again wiped off the camera.

"Derria," said the admiral. The man nodded off screen, and a moment later Book watched the fighters pull away, back towards the Alliance Cruiser "Come to your senses?"

Book smiled. "Jonah, I just wanted to say that you are a true friend. Remember me to all the men, if I don't return."

"I'm sorry, Derria," said Brubaker. "Your last transmission was breaking up. Did you say you were surrendering?"

Book saluted the screen lazily. "Goodbye, old friend. Thanks for everything." He cut the transmission, sighed, and stood up.

"Captain," he said, "we should be in the clear."

"He know you from your Watchering days?" Mal asked.

Book stood aside as Wash slipped past him and into the pilot's chair. He smiled enigmatically at Mal. "Something like that."

"Well?" Wash asked.

Mal nodded. Wash turned to his console, pressed three buttons, and they were gone.

----------

End Chapter 13


	15. Chapter 14

Title: From Here to Serenity  
Author: Bastard Snow  
Rating: PG-13

Summary: Buffy's fall through Glory's portal took her somewhere nobody had ever imagined. Now, it's up to Willow and Xander to get her back.

Disclaimer: I don't own either of these.

Author's Notes: Much, much thanks to Drake, without whom this story would not exist. Also, obviously, thanks to Joss Whedon for coming up with two universes that have nothing to do with each other. Makes it a challenge to make them have everything to do with each other.

Author's additional note: Sorry for not updating for so long. Hope to be better about it now.

Feedback: Yes, please!

* * *

They were still half a day from where they would drop out of FTL, which itself would still be a couple of days at sub-light speeds from Earth. But certain precautions were necessary if, for instance, the demons had managed to build themselves a fleet of ships. Since they had left behind Admiral Brubaker's ship two days earlier, Book had been running all of them except Willow through physical exercises and some basics of hand-to-hand combat, and with the exception of River, they were all tired, sweaty and grumpy. But now, at least, they were relaxing. 

Wash sat across from Xander, the two of them sharing a large bottle of beer and joking about various things. River was off to one side practicing one of the 'forms' that Book had shown her. As with every Slayer Xander had ever met, she had picked it up immediately. This one in particular, however, seemed to calm her mind.

Inara walked in to the kitchen and smiled at them. "Do you mind if I join?" she asked.

"Not at all," Xander said, standing and pulling a chair out for her.

"Thank you," she said.

"So, you never really did say," Xander said. "How did you come to know about the Slayers?"

"Approximately three hundred years ago, before Shepherd Book's order became the sole official keepers of history, the Watchers were a joint group. The patriarchy became… shall we say, overzealous? In their adherence to doctrine. A significant part of the female membership felt this was poor judgment and split away."

"To become companions?" Wash asked. "That's a big turn-around from priests."

"And yet, it is still a spiritual undertaking," Inara told him. "We keep more in touch with the needs and beliefs of the people, we help guide in spiritual matters, and in fact have a very structured hierarchy. Only those deemed worthy are told of our true heritage.

"You must also understand that with as few of us in the Alliance as there are – we are only now starting to approach the population levels in the rest of the galaxy that lived on Earth during your time – a much more liberal attitude toward sex was inevitable. And with such hard lives on the rim colonies, the oldest profession grew in stature, as someone with whom you could speak, let down your guard, relax. The women who were in charge of my order simply... formalized the process. Made sure it was safe, and clean, and that the women held the power."

"I can get behind that," Xander said. "No pun intended."

Inara smiled graciously. "In any event, these women kept the secret that the Watchers did, but disagreed with many of the policies. But those of us..." she paused and glanced at Wash. "I'm sorry. I've never discussed this openly."

Wash sat forward a little. "I... can leave if you..."

Inara shook her head. "It's all right. Those of us who have been among the leadership of the companions know the truth. It is hard to accept at first, but we are shown proof. And honestly, I believe we have some information that even Shepherd Book's group does not."

"Oh?" Xander asked.

"I believe that my group has more information on the personal lives of those of you who started in Sunnydale, the group that... that revolutionized the training and treatment of Slayers. That changed the way the world thought about the occult."

"We did what?"

Inara nodded. "It was you and your friends and family who led the charge against the invasion of the demons."

"Who, exactly?" Xander asked.

"Well, Willow," Inara said. "The Slayer, Buffy Summers, and her sister Dawn. Rupert Giles. Robin Wood."

"Who?"

Inara paused for a moment. "You may not have met him yet. And of course, yourself and your wife."

Xander smiled. "My wife, huh?"

"Oh, yes," Inara said, her voice taking on a little bit of awe. "In fact, the story of the two of you is one that... well, it has been one of my favorites for years. It's all... such a fairy tale romance."

"Knight in shining armor?" Wash asked.

Inara nodded. "A wonderful story."

"Fairy tale romance, huh?" Xander asked. He smiled and leaned back in his chair, his hands supporting his head. "Me and Anya. Who'd have thought?"

Inara's eyes widened.

"What?" Xander asked.

"I... apologize," she said, clearly thrown off by something. She rose and started out of the kitchen. "I've said too much."

"Hey, wait," Xander said. "You can't just do that. You can't just... you can't just have that kind of reaction and not explain."

Inara shook her head. "I'm sorry," she said. "It's unfair. Things probably won't work out the same. Almost certainly will not, in fact. I shouldn't –"

"You started this. I only asked about your organization, you're the one who started talking about my life. You can't just not follow that up."

Inara rested her hand on the door frame, and her head on that hand. She took a deep breath and turned to face Xander. "You're right, of course. It is my fault. If you truly want to know, I will tell you."

"I want to know," Xander said.

Inara sighed. "Anya, your..."

"Fiancée," Xander said.

Inara nodded. "Died. In the fight with the First Evil that activated all of the slayers, and once and for all closed the Sunnydale hellmouth."

Xander felt the blood drain from his face. "Then who..."

"You saved her," Book said. He appeared from the other side of the kitchen. "There was a cult who got their hands on the drugs that had been used in a ritual called the cruciamentum, with which I believe you are familiar."

Xander nodded weakly.

"They drugged her and abducted her. Tortured her and drove her to the brink of insanity. They believed that she was the key to one of their prophecies, that when driven mad, her words would lead them to the key to ultimate power. You and she had, until that point, been having a physical, if not an overtly emotional relationship, though it seems that perhaps it was deeper than either of you had thought. When you eventually found them, you barged in, slaughtered the group of them and carried her out in your arms. Within a month, you were married."

"When you say slaughtered..." Wash said.

"Killed them all," Book said.

"Who?" Xander asked. "Who did they kidnap? Who was I willing to kill for?"

Book looked at Inara and she nodded. "The last true Slayer," she said. "The last one called in the old ways. The Slayer Faith Lehane."

Xander fell out of his chair

* * *

Xander had asked that nobody present share that information with anyone else, especially Willow. They had all agreed, and he decided that he would keep it to himself, at least for the time being. They had bigger things to worry about. Later that night, when he was in the kitchen, looking at but not really reading a book, he felt a slight shift in the vibration of the ship and looked up in time to see Mal walking through the kitchen toward the cockpit. 

"Problems?" Xander asked.

"Not this time," Mal said, not slowing his stride. "Come on and see."

Xander lay his book down and followed Mal to the cockpit.

"Where are we looking?" Mal asked as they stepped in behind Wash.

Wash pointed out the front view port of the ship at a small blue dot.

"That should be it," Wash said.

"Can you bring it up?" Mal asked.

"Just a minute…" Wash pressed a short series of buttons, and as Xander watched a familiar looking blue orb appeared on one of Wash's screens. Xander smiled.

"Gentlemen," Xander said. "Welcome home."

Willow stepped into the cockpit. "We're here, aren't we?"

Xander nodded, looking at his friend. "You okay?"

"I feel great," Willow said. "Why?"

Mal and Wash turned to look at her.

"You do look a little… flushed," Mal said.

Wash shook his head. "I don't know, I'd say more… glowing."

Willow looked at Xander, who was obviously worried. Xander reached out and poked her arm.

"What?" Willow asked, pulling her arm away from her friend.

"I don't know," he said. "I can't quite put my finger on it." Xander wrapped his arm around her. "Don't worry, I'm sure it's nothing. Look."

He pointed at Wash's screen, and a smile blossomed on Willow's face. "We're home."

"Almost," Mal said, nodding.

"How um…" Willow started. She looked out the view port. "How far away are we?"

"'Nother couple of days, at sub-light speeds," Wash said. "We thought it would be safer to stop a little farther out than normal. Give us some time to assess the situation."

"Any early readings?" Mal asked.

Wash shook his head. "We're a couple hours away from maximum sensor range," Wash said. "We knew that was possible, depending on Earth's orbit. Could have been as much as a day."

Mal nodded. "Call me when you know something."

Xander and Willow split apart to let Mal pass, then quickly stepped back together and continued looking out the view port. After a couple of minutes Wash looked back at them.

"You uh… you guys just going to stand there?"

Xander nodded absently.

"Okay," Wash said.

Willow leaned into Xander's shoulder, and the two of them watched, tricking themselves into believing they could see Earth getting bigger.

They were almost home.

* * *

Willow looked up from her bed to see Xander standing in the doorway. "What's up?" she asked. 

"You," he said. "You look... healthier."

"Do I?" she asked. "I feel good. Really good. Like... powerful."

Xander raised an eyebrow.

"I can't explain it," she said. "But it suddenly feels like for the last few weeks, I've been listening to music with earplugs in and now, I can hear a lot more clearly. Like I was just hearing strains of the music before and now..."

"You're getting the whole orchestra?"

"Most of it, anyway," she said. She took a deep breath, and said quietly, "It's a little scary."

"If anything changes... well, there's not much I can do, but I'm here."

"I am, too," she said.

Xander raised an eyebrow at her.

"Something's bothering you. I can tell."

"It's not important," he said.

"Of course it is," she said. "Or you wouldn't be worried about it."

Xander sighed and sat down at the foot of her bed. "Inara told me something she shouldn't have. She realized her mistake, and tried not to tell me, but... you know me."

"Had to know."

Xander nodded. "It was... bad. Unhappy. And in one part, very strange and surreal and not at all likely."

"What'd she say?"

He took a deep breath, and released it before responding. "That Anya was going to die," he said. "Or did in this dimension, anyway. During the fight where we closed the Hellmouth."

"Oh, Xander," Willow said. She gripped his arm in her hand squeezed, lovingly. "I'm sure that that won't happen to us. Especially now that you know about it, right?"

Xander nodded. "That wasn't the weird part, though. I mean, it's horrible, but the idea that Anya might die in one of these fights... that any of us might, I mean..."

"We deal with it all the time," Willow said. "It's not a new feeling."

Xander nodded. "The weird thing was later. Who I eventually did marry."

"Who?" Willow asked.

"You're going to laugh," he said. "Faith."

Xander waited, but Willow's laugh never came. He turned and looked at her.

"Actually..." she said. "In the right circumstances, I can kind of see that."

Xander looked at her like she'd grown an eighth head.

"Not that I want you to, or I think you should. I think my feelings on her are pretty well known. But given the right circumstances, I can see you and her... being close. Really close."

The look continued. "I mean, 'What? No way! That would never happen.'"

"Thank you," he said. "Anyway, I'm gonna let that one simmer for a while and deal with it later."

Willow patted him on the shoulder. "You're going to be fine."

Xander nodded, leaned over and kissed her on the forehead. "Good night, Willow," he said.

"Night, Xander."

He smiled at her, stood up and slid the door shut as he left.

* * *

Malcolm Reynolds slammed into the floor for the third time in as many minutes. "Oh, ow," he said, his back arching up as he reached around to rub his tailbone. "That one's gonna leave a mark." 

"Okay, okay, everyone take a break," Book called, clapping his hands together. He walked over to Mal as the others grabbed some water or just took a seat to rest. "Captain Reynolds, is there something wrong?"

"Nothin' at all, Shepherd," he said, peeling himself off the floor. "Why do you ask?"

"You appear not to be doing very well, is all," Book said. "Constantly being outmatched, always on the floor. One could come to believe that you're not putting your full effort into this."

"Or that the freak of nature you got me paired up with is just better'n faster than me," he said.

"She may be better and faster," Book said, "but Inara is hardly a freak. The problem that I see you having is you're afraid to hit her."

"Well she's a girl," he said.

"But a strong one, who may, in fact, be better and faster than you. Captain, we've had only a few days to prepare, and I obviously can't teach everyone to actually fight in that short a time. I'm trying to give you shortcuts, ways to cheat, basically. But you're not going to learn even those if you're constantly on your backside. So toughen up. Or I can have you fight Jayne."

"I'll do better," Mal said. "Do got a question for you. How come you got the boy fighting River?"

"Who, Xander?"

Mal nodded. "You're looking for size and strength, right? Shouldn't Jayne be…"

Book shook his head. "He is the one most used to dealing with that type of speed. He's been fighting things stronger and faster for years, and he already knows all the shortcuts I'm teaching you, because he has to use them just to survive."

"You think he could take me?"

"In a sword fight, certainly. Hand to hand… only if he got you out early. With guns, you take him every time."

Mal nodded. "How useful are guns going to be down there?"

"If it's anything like what I've read? Not very. If there is a fight with demons, and he tells you to do something, I suggest you do it. Just as he should listen to you if there was a war on. Fighting prowess is one thing, experience is quite another."

"What about the girl?" Mal asked.

"Which one?" replied Book.

"His friend, the Witch."

"Willow?"

"She ain't training with us."

"Captain, if I were to fight demons regularly, I would rather have Willow Rosenberg on my side than a regiment of Alliance troops," Book said. "At least, if the stories are true."

"She has looked kind of… glowing recently."

Book nodded. "We should get back to work," he said. "Are you going to actually fight this time, or am I going to have to come down here and beat on you to get you to move?"

Mal grinned. "Oh, I'm ready to fight," he said. "I just got one question. If you came to fight me, who would we have to say your last rites?"

Book smiled back at him. "Everyone, back to your positions," he called out.

A minute later, when Mal's back hit the floor again despite a full effort on his part, Inara smirked at him and said, "Quite a bit faster and better, it would seem."

Mal just glared.

----------

End Chapter 14


	16. Chapter 15

Title: From Here to Serenity  
Author: Bastard Snow  
Rating: PG-13

Summary: Buffy's fall through Glory's portal took her somewhere nobody had ever imagined. Now, it's up to Willow and Xander to get her back.

Disclaimer: I don't own either of these.

Author's Notes: Much, much thanks to Drake, without whom this story would not exist. Also, obviously, thanks to Joss Whedon for coming up with two universes that have nothing to do with each other. Makes it a challenge to make them have everything to do with each other.

Author's additional note: Sorry for not updating for so long. Hope to be better about it now.

Feedback: Yes, please!

* * *

"This is what we know," Mal said. He had gathered the whole crew in the mess and was updating them on the situation. They'd pulled out a bunch of cortex readers, one for every other person. Mal pressed a few buttons on his cortex reader, and an animation sprang to life on everyone's screen. "There's a station in orbit around the planet. Far as we can tell, it's got no kinda power, and ain't nobody on it. There's a couple shuttles going back and forth between it and the Earth, about every three hours. Best guess says they're automated. Zoë?"

Zoë stepped forward and Mal tapped another couple of buttons. The picture on the screen zoomed in on a large mountain, getting close enough to show a low resolution image of a large concrete slab, with what appeared to be a number of vehicles parked on it. "As an entry point, they follow a pretty good route. Further scans of the planet show they put down on what appears to be a shipping dock of some kind, up high on some mountain. "

"From where it's located, I'd say it looks like Denver," Willow said. "It's a um… fairly large city on a plateau in the Western United States. Or, well, it… was, I guess."

Zoë nodded. "There doesn't appear to be much activity of any kind around there, other than these shuttles. That's not the case in a lot of other places, but for now, it looks like we can at least set down there, get an idea of what's going on. Much of the rest of the world ain't so great."

She nodded to Mal, who pressed a few more buttons. The picture zoomed out to orbit, showing a spinning Earth. Little red dots popped up across the surface, focusing mainly on the East coast of the US, both the European and African coasts of the Mediterranean and Southeast Asia.

"Far as we can tell, this is where there's a lot of action," Zoë continued. "There are fires burning pretty constantly, and every few hours there seems to be some pretty heavy clashes. It looks like there's been a lot of progress made in these areas in the last few months."

"So," Xander interrupted, "there's still fighting."

Zoë nodded. "There's still fighting. And from the destruction, it looks like these are battles that have been raging for decades, that only recently turned in one direction"

"Of particular interest is the one on this coast here," Mal said. The picture zoomed in on the East Coast, and highlighted a line that ran from the Chesapeake Bay to the Hudson.

"Why that one?" asked Simon.

"It looks like one group – can't tell which from this distance – has made some progress within the last few months." Mal tapped the pad again and the view spread out. Part of the area looked as if it had been recently rebuilt. "Obviously we can't be sure of this, but that looks like new construction, and that don't happen if one side or the other's givin' ground, just if one side is holding ground."

"If it's the humans pushing," Xander said, "that's where you'll find Buffy. Guarantee it."

"How can you be so sure?" asked Inara.

Xander licked his lips. "Imagine Simon could fight like River," he said. "And now imagine that he'd been trained by Shepherd Book for the last five years."

"Still an awful lot of headway," Jayne said.

Xander nodded. "Now imagine that a Hellgoddess has just tossed Simon through a portal, leaving River to be taken care of by you guys. And imagine Simon wakes up and the only thing to do is fight, and he pours all of his energy into that."

The whole crew sat stunned.

"So like I said," Xander continued. "If that's the humans making progress, along that line is where we'll find Buffy. Can we get better images of that area?"

Mal nodded. "Next few passes we can refocus, get some real detail. We'll find out sure enough if that's humans down there."

* * *

When Xander found Willow, sitting alone on the floor of the cargo hold, her eyes were closed and her head resting against a container, with a soft smile on her lips. She looked almost euphoric.

"Will?" Xander asked. She looked up at him, her eyes shining brightly.

"I know what it is," she said. "This feeling I'm getting. Why I feel so good. I know what it is."

"What is it?" Xander asked, taking a seat next to her on the cold floor.

"It's Earth," she said. "Earth and her magic. I don't know how I know this, but I do. Xander, when Buffy showed up here, when she fell through that portal, Earth ramped up her magic and started fighting back against the demons."

"Earth did?" he asked.

"The demons... they're an abomination. We know that. They're from Hell dimensions, and they don't belong here. But the demons and the forces of good... maintain a balance. Right?"

"That is my understanding," Xander said.

"But when the demons took over again, the balance was disrupted. And I think... I think all of the Champions must have died. All of the Slayers. And for hundreds of years, humans were alone on Earth, fighting against the demons, doing what they could, but with no Champions, nobody to lead the fight. For hundreds of years, Xander, Earth basically had nobody to defend her. And so she went dormant."

"Dormant?"

"Earth... is the source of magic in the world. Everything that I do, all of my magic, comes from her. And when Shepherd Book says, rightly or wrongly, that I'm very powerful, it's basically because Earth's magic... chose me. Or I have a big tap into it, or something like that. The point is, the power... comes from her."

"Okay," Xander said. "So the Earth basically isn't producing magic for, call it, four and a half centuries. And then Buffy shows up," he said.

Willow nodded at him. "And then Buffy shows up. A true, fire tested Champion of the Powers That Be. And Earth wakens from her slumber and has all that magic stored up, and now that she has someone to fight for her, she lets loose in a flood."

"How sure are you of all this?"

"As sure as I've ever been about anything. I can feel it in my bones, Xander. And there's more."

"Oh?"

"The barrier," she said. "The one that kept me from opening the portal here, so we could retrieve Buffy? Earth raised it. It's not just a magical barrier, Xander, it's a dimensional one. No magic can get to Earth from anywhere. And that means –"

"No demon reinforcements," Xander said.

Willow nodded.

"So Buffy shows up. Earth wakes up, and floods the planet with magic. She puts up a barrier stopping anymore demons from showing up."

"Right."

"Assume that wherever the numbers are at that point, they've been in stalemate for a while, with no change. But now, all of a sudden, the demons can't replenish their losses."

"Xander," Willow said, grasping his hand, "Earth is ready for humanity to come home."

Xander looked down at their hands. "Then we've got to give it all the help we can," he said. "I think I have an idea."

* * *

"I would love to know how those shuttles are still working," said Kaylee's voice.

"You and me both," said Mal. "We could get equipment lasted that long, we might could save a penny or two."

He, Jayne and Xander were dressed in environmental suits, standing in Serenity's airlock and waiting for Wash to dock with the station. They had sat near Earth for a few hours, monitoring as much satellite traffic as they could. There wasn't much to find, and what there was showed no indication that anyone or anything inhabited the space station. That made it the first stop on their journey to the ground.

"We've got hard seal," Wash's voice said in Mal's helmet. "You should be go for entry."

"Understood," said Mal. He nodded to Jayne, who stepped up and opened the outer door. The next step was accessing the airlock door on the station and getting it to open. The problem as Mal had seen it was they wouldn't be able to open the airlock door without some sort of familiarity with the system – familiarity they didn't have. Fortunately, another option was presented.

"Willow," Xander said, "you're up."

"Just a minute," Willow replied. The three men stood there for a few moments, waiting. Then, slowly, the station's airlock door creaked open a few inches, before suddenly shooting wide open. Air flowed past Mal, but not so fast that he was worried about a vacuum on the other side.

Mal could see Xander grinning through his helmet. "That's great, Will. You still got enough juice to do that locating spell?"

"Absolutely," she answered. "I feel like I could do this all day."

"Okay, well, I don't think that's necessary. Just take it a little easy, you're still gonna be our big gun when we get down there."

"Yes, sir," Willow said. Mal could almost picture her mock salute.

"All right, enough chatter. Let's go check this place out," he said. Mal stepped into the station and walked through the airlock to the room on the other side. As he swept his light around the cabin, he saw nothing. Nothing was working, nothing was moving, and there was nobody there. He looked down at his the atmospheric sensor on his arm. "There's air here, but it's not what I'd call breathable."

Jayne and Xander stepped forward into the room, the clanking of their boots echoing loudly against the metallic floors, Jayne's bag of supplies thumping against his leg.

"The shuttles appear to be docking about two hundred feet below you," Wash's voice said over their radios.

"We'll get down there as soon as we can find some stairs," Mal said as the three of them stepped into a long hallway that went off to the left and right. He pointed to his left. "Jayne, you look over that way. Harris, you're with me."

Jayne nodded and headed down his corridor., and Xander followed the captain off to the right. As they moved, they checked each door they past. The first few were full of equipment that neither of them recognized. One was a bathroom, another some sort of lounge. Then came what appeared to be an open elevator shaft. A glance upward showed the car was a few levels up.

"Last resort," Mal said. Xander nodded. They moved on and started finding bedrooms, some with a few bunks in them, a couple with just one. The last door, at the end of the hall, was heavier than any of the others. It seemed to be reinforced in some manner, but between them they were able to force it open.

Inside was what had to be the main control center for the station. Computers and terminals lined every wall, the whole place had the feel of a command center. It was laid out around a large, raised dais from which a person could have an excellent vantage point of the entire room. Many of the stations had large screens above them, presumably to show the person on the dais what was happening.

Mal and Xander both inspected the dais, but neither could make out what anything did.

"Mal," Jayne's voice said, "I think I found a couple things we might be interested in."

Mal and Xander hoofed it back to the other side of the station. They came upon Jayne standing between two rooms with a shit-eating grin on his face.

"What'd you find?" Mal asked.

"This here's the weapons locker," Jayne said, nodding to the door on his right. Mal poked his head in and saw an arsenal of weapons, none of which he had ever seen before. Locked in a cage were what looked like explosives of some kind.

"That could be very useful," Mal said. "This it?"

Jayne shook his head and nodded to the door on his left.

Mal raise an eyebrow and looked inside. He saw treasure.

"I believe," Xander said, looking over Mal's shoulder, "that you've just found yourselves a library."

"We'll come back for this later," Mal said. "Jayne, you find any stairs?"

Jayne shook his head. "Just a door opened onto an open shaft, though it looked like there was a elevator car about fifty feet down."

"We found one too," Mal said, "and I think we'll go back over there. The shaft was clear below us."

"What about the weapons?" Jayne asked.

Mal shook his head. "We got no way to test them out," he said. "We head down to the surface, we'll take them, get them figured out down there. This place is bad enough with no breathable air. I got no mind to make it a vacuum."

"Anyway we could fix it?" Xander asked, as they started to make their way back to the other elevator shaft. "Make this place usable?"

Mal shrugged. "Could be. I don't think we wanna take the time to give it that close an inspection, though."

"What if it's simple?" Xander asked. "If we can even make the air breathable, the people on the planet could maybe figure out some sort of advantage, right? Like if they got these stations up and running, maybe they could get some spy satellite intelligence or something."

"You think folks who've been under siege for five hundred years are gonna maintain courses in advanced computing?" Mal asked.

"That," said Xander, "is something I didn't think of."

They got to the elevator shaft and propped open the doors. Jayne reached into his bag and pulled out a length of rope, measuring it out as he went.

"Got enough?" Mal asked.

"Nope," said Jayne. "Someone's gotta go back and get more."

"I'll do it," Xander said. "Not used to breathing in these things anyway, I could use a break."

Mal nodded.

Xander headed back to the ship. "Hey Will," he called into his radio as he reached the airlock. "Cycle it for me, I'm coming back through."

Ahead of him, the airlock doors slid open, then closed again behind him. He stepped back onto Serenity.

"Kaylee said she'll be back in a moment with the rope," Simon said, approaching Xander to help him remove his helmet.

"Man," Xander said. "It can get warm inside that thing."

"Mmm," Simon said by way of agreement. "At least you've got yours on correctly."

"I imagine that helps," he said.

Simon leaned in close. "Willow spoke to my sister and I," he said quietly. "I can't say I like it, but if the situation is what it appears to be, I'll support it."

"Mal's gonna hate it," Xander murmured. "But if we can get – Hey, Kaylee."

"Hey, there yourself," she said, smiling as she walked up with a long length of rope. "That should do ya."

"Thanks," Xander said. He sighed and leaned down, and Simon replaced his helmet

Xander nodded and headed back to meet Mal and Jayne. Mal was waiting for him

"You're up," Mal said. "Take the rope with you, I'll come last with Jayne's bag of crap."

"Sure thing," Xander said. "Mind if I poke around while Jayne gets us set up to keep moving?"

"Just don't break anything," Mal said.

Xander nodded, grabbed the rope and started climbing down. When he reached the level Jayne had set up on, he handed the large man the rope and started to look around. The first few doors he found opened into storage rooms, one of which looked like it held nothing but boxes. He reached the end of the hall and had to put his shoulder to the door to open it.

"Harris, get a move on," Mal's voice said in his ear. "We're just about set up."

"Uh, Captain," Xander said, staring at one of the consoles in front of him, "I think you might want to see this."

Xander heard the Mal muttering in what must have been Chinese, but a minute later he showed up nonetheless.

"What is it that's so important that I... have to... is that blinking?"

Xander nodded. "I think so."

Mal stepped up to the console where a small green light was blinking steadily. A layer of dust had settled over it that must have been left over from the last time anybody had been on the station.

He tapped the light. It blinked.

"Captain," Xander said from another station in the room. He held up a binder with papers in it. Mal raised an eyebrow at him. "I think this is a manual."

"We don't know what this console does," Mal said.

Xander flipped open the binder and started leafing through it as well as he could with his massive gloved hand. He skimmed each page as he went, until he found a line drawing of a station that looked like the one in front of them.

"Environmental control," Xander said. "May I?"

Mal stepped back. "Jayne," he said into his radio, "we might be a minute or two."

Xander looked from the manual to the console and back. He pressed one of the buttons, and the green light clicked on and stayed that way. A few seconds later, the small screen on the console flickered to life and presented Xander with a warning message.

"No kidding," Xander said as the words on the screen flashed red, "the atmosphere's unbreathable." He looked at the manual again, and pressed two more buttons. "They really dumbed this thing down," he said, as the screen flashed another message. "Yes, I really do want to start the air scrubbers. Let's hope this doesn't blow up." Xander pressed another button. A moment later, the pages of the manual vibrated a little as, somewhere in the room, a fan came on.

"I think that's about it for the moment," Xander said. "But if the scrubbers work, then hopefully sometime soon, the air will be breathable. At least some of the rest of the crew could help us look around. Maybe Kaylee could find the... I don't know. Does a space station have an engine room?"

"Power plant," Mal suggested.

"Fair enough."

"We've done enough here for now," Mal said. "Let's get down to those shuttles."

* * *

Twenty minutes later, they found where the shuttle was docked. The doors to the shuttle were open, and the shuttle itself was empty of anything other than air. Mal's air monitor, however, showed that the atmosphere was slightly less horrible in that immediate vicinity.

"Wash, how much longer we got until this shuttle leaves?" Mal asked.

"About half an hour," Wash's said over the radio.

Mal nodded. "Okay, let's check it out then."

The three of them stepped into the shuttle. Jayne headed for the back as Mal and Xander headed for the cockpit. Xander, unfamiliar with flying craft of any sort, stood back while Mal looked at the controls.

"Looks fairly standard," Mal said. "I guess it makes sense. There's only so many configurations you can have for a ship's controls that are gonna make it usable for humans. Got everything needed to fly. Autopilot's gotta be a thing of beauty."

"She can hold maybe thirty people," Jayne said, stepping up and poking his head into the cockpit. "And there's plenty of cargo room for if we were to want to bring some extra weapons with us."

"Captain," Zoë's voice came over the radio. "We've got our high res images of the planet. You're going to want to see this."

"All right, we'll be out in a few minutes," Mal said. He turned to Jayne. "You got that camera?" At Jayne's nod, Mal said, "Good. Set it up somewhere it's got a good view of the doors. I wanna see if there's anything outside the door where this ship sets down."

When Jayne had set the camera up and secured it, they headed back to Serenity.

* * *

Willow sat with the rest of the crew, waiting impatiently as Mal and Zoë went over the images they'd gotten of Earth. Almost an hour passed as they looked over the photos, and the others grew more and more anxious. Eventually, they entered the kitchen, and she could read barely anything from their faces.

"It's not pretty," Mal said. "The truth down there on the surface is that humanity's taken a beating. They are not in good shape. But they've made progress. Good progress. And things are looking up."

"In addition to the hot spots we mentioned earlier, we've been able to find some other things. Humans are largely in control of these two continents in the southern hemisphere."

"Australia and South America," Xander said. Mal nodded.

"As far as we can tell," Zoë said, "These areas are where the bulk of the human population is, as well as some in the far north, in an area that looks barely habitable." Zoë put a photo down on the table. "Also, there's a fight going on right now, on the east coast of this continent."

"North America," Xander told her.

"Right," she said. "It's a large battle. The humans appear to have an entrenched position in what looks like the ruins of this city, at the top of this large bay." She looked at Xander, who looked at Willow.

"Baltimore," Willow said. "Is the city."

Zoë nodded. "The..." she paused and shook her head. "The demons don't appear to be making much headway. We think that a large force of humans decided to push, and decided to do it from here." She pointed to a picture.

"New York," Xander and Willow said together.

"There's probably been hold-outs on this continent for years," Zoë said, "And now they're finally able to do something. And they've made good progress."

"And if your friend can do what you say she can do," Mal said, "then we agree that this is the most likely place to find her. Which raises a problem."

"What's that?" Book asked.

"Well, the intelligence of taking an unarmed freighter into a combat zone aside," Mal said, "We can't see as there's a place to put down a ship this size without being damned obvious about it. And that's more attention that we want to attract."

"What about the shuttles?" asked Willow.

"They appear to be sturdy enough, certainly. Problem being, I don't want to leave my ship just sitting up here, either, unattended."

"Well, at the least," Xander asked, "how does the pad where the shuttles land look?"

"We can't see any sign of movement," Zoë said. "Although that doesn't mean there isn't any."

"Are there any other ships there?" Inara asked.

Zoë shook her head. "The shuttles are all we can see."

Willow looked to Xander and nodded, encouraging him.

"Uh, Captain," Xander said, standing up. "I kind of have a plan that might... um... might solve this."

"Oh?" Mal asked.

"Yeah," Xander said, glancing to Willow and then back to Mal. "You're not going to like it."

----------

End Chapter 15


	17. Chapter 16

Title: From Here to Serenity  
Author: Bastard Snow  
Rating: PG-13

Summary: Buffy's fall through Glory's portal took her somewhere nobody had ever imagined. Now, it's up to Willow and Xander to get her back.

Disclaimer: I don't own either of these.

Author's Notes: Much, much thanks to Drake, without whom this story would not exist. Also, obviously, thanks to Joss Whedon for coming up with two universes that have nothing to do with each other. Makes it a challenge to make them have everything to do with each other.

Feedback: Yes, please!

* * *

A few hours later, the original shuttle returned to the station, and Mal and Zoë were there to greet it, still dressed in vacuum suits. Xander had started the air scrubbers, but there was a lot of air, and a lot to scrub out of it. It would probably be a week or more before anyone could walk around the station without breathing gear. They stepped into the shuttle and picked up the camera Jayne had placed, which was seemingly undisturbed.

They brought it out of the shuttle and took it back up to Serenity, and the whole crew watched together as they fast forwarded through the most boring video any of them had ever seen.

"Damn," Mal said. "That was my last bastion of hope."

"Sorry, Captain," Zoë said. "Just got out done on this one."

"I still hate it."

"We know you do, sir," she said.

"And she's still your ship, and you can choose to do, or not, as you please," Book said. "Ain't no man can take that right from you, nor none of us here who'd try."

"I know. And if it was just these two who'd go, I'd leave it at that," he said, nodding his head at Xander and Willow. "But when Jayne and Simon are on the same side… well, there's just no fighting that. I don't like the plan. I think it's simplistic, and like as not to end up with us dead, but it's as good a one as we've got, and it'll have to do. How much time do we have until this shuttle departs?"

"About an hour," Wash said.

Mal nodded. "Well, no time like the present. Everyone gather up what you'll need and let's get going. Red, you said you can get my people down there?"

Willow nodded. "Once everyone's ready, I can create a bubble of breathable air through the station that will lead to the shuttle area," she said. "Those still on Serenity might get a little light headed, but it should be fine once we're all down there."

Mal nodded and looked at Xander. "And you're all packed?"

"Will and I both are," he said. "I'll be ready to load the supplies as soon as I get those on the shuttle."

"Okay then," Mal said. "Let's get to it."

* * *

Mal sat at the helm of the shuttle, familiarizing himself with the controls and making absolutely sure he knew what was where.

"We're all aboard, sir," Zoë said, climbing into the co-pilot's seat. "Timer says five minutes to departure. Everyone's all strapped in."

"And Willow's got our air locked up?"

"She has," Zoë said. "Doesn't even seem to be straining."

"You know, if I didn't see this stuff with my own eyes…"

"Absolutely, sir," Zoë said. "But… we have."

Mal nodded, and the two of them sat in silence as he continued looking over the controls. "Simple enough," he said. "Just making sure I know what's what."

A short time later they heard the door to the shuttle clamp shut, and a light on the console lit up to show that it had a seal against the vacuum. A moment later, the shuttle was moving.

Mal picked up the radio that was sitting in his lap. "Wash, we appear to be en route," he said.

"You are definitely on the move. We'll stay here until you change course, and then we're off," Wash said.

"Make sure you and Kaylee take care of my ship," Mal said. "And don't let her and the doctor boss you around, or spend too much of their time doing naughty things. You're in charge, you understand?"

"Yes, sir," Wash said. "And good hunting."

Mal nodded and handed the radio to Zoë, who took it into the back in the hopes of getting some privacy. Mal watched intently at the various actions that showed on the board as the shuttle maneuvered itself down towards Earth. Everything met up with his expectations.

A couple of minutes later, Zoë re-entered the cockpit and placed the radio on the floor between them, and they rode in silence. Almost half an hour later, the shuttle entered the atmosphere and it was time to see if they could move.

"Everybody strap in," Mal yelled into the back. He took a deep breath and muttered, "Here goes everything." Mal depressed the button marked 'Auto-pilot disengage' and the shuttle shuddered, slightly, and then was under his control. He grabbed the controls and shifted their course to the east.

When he'd gotten the shuttle fully under control, he took the time to look out the windows.

"Wow," he said, looking over the vast plains of North America. "That… sure is a sight."

"Captain," Zoë said. "Something about this place feels…"

"Right," Mal said. Zoë nodded. "This is the home of our ancestors. Where they lived for millennia, where we evolved. We ourselves may have gotten used to various gravities and atmospheres, and livin' on ships. This planet is what we're designed for."

"It's beautiful," Zoë said.

Mal nodded, and they both stared out at the rapidly moving land beneath them, barely visible both because of their altitude and the fact that they were flying pretty much in the middle of the night..

"Well, then," Mal said. "What say we save it?"

* * *

Mal kept the shuttle hovering over what looked like it had once been a fairly large city. "There are two places you can go in Baltimore." Mal and Zoë looked over their shoulders and saw Xander standing behind them. At their questioning looks, he said, "We stopped moving, so I came to see what was up."

Mal nodded. "You were saying?"

Xander smiled. "It's an old saying. There are two places you can end up in Baltimore. The Inner Harbor or the graveyard."

"Rough town?"

"So I heard," he said. "Never actually got to this side of the country."

"Any ideas on where we should put down?"

"Look near the harbor," Xander said. "There should be a large brick warehouse with a vaguely diamond-shaped grassy field next to it."

Mal adjusted the ships facing and flew around a little so they could see the city. He pointed to a specific section. "That it?"

"I think so," Xander said.

"Best strap yourself in, then," Mal said. "I never was very good at landing."

Mal headed for the field and despite using his gentlest touch managed to slam the shuttle down on the field hard enough to hear some metal groan. He killed the external lights and sat back.

"We're here," Zoë said.

Mal nodded. "Get everyone up. We wanna get moving as fast as we can."

They parceled out the weapons among them. Jayne kept his guns and grenades and various other scary looking weapons. Mal kept his pistol, but strapped one of the many rifles they'd found on the station to his back, as did Zoë. Xander strapped on his sword, hung what looked like a hatchet from his belt, put on a holster and put his pistol – one that was fairly different than any Mal had seen – in it. Then he grabbed another of the rifles and carried it in his hands.

Book and Inara outfitted themselves almost entirely from the cache of weapons from the station. Book had also borrowed a long sword from Xander, and had that lashed at his waist.

River was a different case. Xander had offered her the pick of his weapons, of which he had a disturbingly large array. She picked through them, holding them, testing them, weighing them, until she came upon two that she liked. One was a double-headed axe that looked mean as anything, and the other was a small dagger that looked as fine as any weapon he'd ever seen.

And then she'd looked over the weapons again, looked at Xander and held out her hand. Without comment or question, he reached into a bag and produced a small wooden stake. River nodded and slipped it into her waist band. That was all the weaponry she wanted.

Willow had no weapons to speak of, or at least none that Mal could see, but Xander and Book assured him that she was not without her defenses. He took another look at her. She had a sort of serene sense about her, and he would swear she was still glowing, even brighter than before.

"Okay," Mal said. "There's eight of us. We pair off in two's and stick together, no matter what. If your partner disappears, you better be gone, too. Jayne, you're with Inara. Zoë, you and River, Willow and Book, and Xander, you're with me. We're going to have to do some searching around. From the spell Willow did earlier, we know their friend is somewhere to the west of us, or at least was two hours ago. We also know that this city is dangerous. So watch out for each other."

"Captain," Willow said, her voice light and airy. "Can I suggest we open the door?"

"Why?"

"I think it will make our search a whole lot easier."

Mal frowned, but reached over to the door and pressed a button. The door rose slowly, and they could smell a breeze blowing in off of the bay. When the door opened, Mal looked out on the untended field they had landed in.

"I don't get it," he said, turning back to Willow. "How is this supposed to –"

"Don't move!" someone from outside the shuttle yelled. Mal glanced back out the shuttle door and saw half a dozen young men with guns trained on the door.

"You knew about this?" he asked Willow.

"Trust me," she said. "This is for the best. Just do as they say."

"This plan is gettin' worse all the time," Mal muttered. He raised his hands and turned to the people in the field. "We uh… we come in peace?"

* * *

They had all been stripped of their weapons, and all the weapons in the shuttle had been confiscated. They offered no resistance to their 'captors,' though Jayne especially was not happy to have other people touching his guns.

And now they were being driven in what had to be the most ancient school bus ever to wherever it was their hosts wanted them to go. They weren't tied up or handcuffed, but it was obvious that they were not free to do as they pleased.

"So how many times have you had to rebuild this thing?" Xander asked one of the young men, patting the side of the bus. The kid stayed silent. "A lot, I bet. Probably gets crappy mileage, too, it's so big. You guys still using fossil fuels? Or did you switch to nuclear or something? Hey, can you take us by Babe Ruth's home? I've always wanted to see that."

"You already missed it," one of the others said. "It was back near the stadium."

"Oh, damn," Xander said. "Well, I'll just have to go back and see it again sometime."

"It won't work," the young man said.

"Why, did they tear it down?"

"Not that. You won't make friends by speaking to us like you're not a threat. We're not stupid, and we've been attacked too many times to fall for it."

"So tell me," Xander said. "You guys got a new leader recently, right? Some girl about yea high?" He held out his hand to approximate Buffy's height. "Blonde? Cute? Kicks ass like it's her job? Which, you know, it is?"

There was no response.

"So we're back to this again," he said. "Good."

"Xander," Willow said. "They're doing their jobs. We'll be fine."

Xander shrugged. "You say so."

They allowed themselves to be led to a large warehouse-like building. After a brief moment of conversation among their captors, they were split into four separate rooms. Xander was placed in a room with River, and they were left there, alone.

"Do you want me to break these cuffs?" River asked.

"No," Xander said. "Willow said we'll be fine. So let them do their thing, and we'll get out of this."

River looked at the door and her breath shortened slightly. "The Queen," she said. She turned to Xander and smiled. "The ants will be marching home soon."

Xander nodded. "Soon enough, anyway."

* * *

Mal looked to his left. "Hey, Shepherd. You think you can get out of those cuffs?"

"Seems unlikely," Book said. "I haven't picked cuffs in thirty-five years, and even then I needed something to do it with. I'm afraid I lack tools."

They heard some commotion outside the door, the sound of a woman yelling. Something was slammed on something else, the woman yelled again, and a moment later the door to their room was ripped open. A short, young, blonde woman stepped into the room and glared at them. Despite her size, or rather lack of it, Mal was immediately aware that this girl could tear him apart.

"Evenin'," he said, smiling.

She smiled sweetly, not convincing him for one second that she was planning to be nice. She pulled the axe River had chosen from behind her back and lay it on the table.

"You landed in Camden Yards," she said. "In a type of ship we've never seen. Where did you get it?"

Mal looked as far to the sky as he could. "Up there."

"Up where?" she asked.

"In space. You are aware there's a whole big universe out there?"

"Moreso than most," she said. "What of it?"

"Well, that's where we come from," Mal said. "Though that specific shuttle we got from borrowed from a space station orbiting this planet above a city I'm told is called Denver."

She narrowed her eyes. "Denver?"

"So I'm told."

"By who?"

"One of my crew," he said.

She stepped back and looked at Book. "Why are you staring at me?"

"You're her," he said, his voice reverent.

"Who?" she asked.

"The Chosen One. Buffy Summers."

She moved so fast that Mal saw only a blur, and an instant later Book was slammed up against a wall, held up by his neck by this slip of a girl.

"Where did you hear that name?" she growled.

Book choked, sputtering with her hand around his throat.

"One of the others," Mal said. "Told us."

She dropped Book and he slumped to the floor. "Who?" she asked.

"He's a young man," Mal said. "About six feet tall. Dark hair. Deep eyes. You'd like him." He managed to hold back a smirk.

She held up the axe, gripping it in her hand with a familiarity that told him it probably belonged to her. "And where did you get this?"

"Same guy," he said. "Don't know which room they put him in, but you might ask your goons."

She glared at him and left the room, taking her axe with her.

"Nice girl," Mal said, turning to look at the Shepherd. "I can see why they like her. You all right?"

Book nodded and leaned back against the wall. "You didn't tell her who we're with."

Mal shrugged. "She wouldn't believe me anyway. Better she sees for herself. Bet she screams and pees herself, she's so happy."

They waited. Book raised an eyebrow. They waited some more.

"Any minute now," Mal said. He tapped his foot. Book coughed.

They waited.

----------

End Chapter 16


	18. Chapter 17

Title: From Here to Serenity  
Author: Bastard Snow  
Rating: PG-13

Summary: Buffy's fall through Glory's portal took her somewhere nobody had ever imagined. Now, it's up to Willow and Xander to get her back.

Disclaimer: I don't own either of these.

Author's Notes: Much, much thanks to Drake, without whom this story would not exist. Also, obviously, thanks to Joss Whedon for coming up with two universes that have nothing to do with each other. Makes it a challenge to make them have everything to do with each other.

Feedback: Yes, please!

* * *

"She's here," River said. 

The door opened and revealed Buffy. Xander smiled when he saw her hesitate. She wasn't expecting him. He grinned. "Heya, Buff," he said. "How's tricks?"

Her eyes narrowed to mere slits.

"I'll give you this," she said. "Whatever you are, you're good at copying my friends."

"Thanks," he said.

"Not going to try to convince me you're who you look like?"

Xander shrugged. "You'll convince yourself, eventually, and you're not gonna trust anything I just tell you, anyway. So I'm going to let you run the show, and prove to you that I am Alexander… Lavelle Harris."

Buffy raised an eyebrow. "Who's the girl?"

"Her name's River Tam," Xander said. "And she's a Slayer."

"There hasn't been a Slayer called in 500 years."

"Certainly not on this planet."

Buffy frowned. "If she's a Slayer, why hasn't she gotten out of those cuffs? They're not that tough."

"I asked her not to," Xander said. "Once you realize that we are who we say we are, we won't be in any danger here. But if you need a demonstration…" He nodded to River.

With a slight flexing of her muscles, River snapped the chain between the cuffs and brought her hands around the front of her chair, but remained seated.

"The first words you said to me," Buffy demanded.

"Can I have you?"

"Senior Prom."

"Tucker Wells," Xander said.

"Not what I was going to ask."

"Sorry."

"I was given an award."

"Class protector."

"Are you going to let me get there?"

"Sorry," Xander said. "But you're taking a while, and the cuffs chafe a little."

"Who gave me the award?"

Xander smiled. "Jonathan Levinson. Who had previously asked you to prom after you stopped him from killing himself with a high powered rifle, which you were able to do because you had recently gained telepathy from a demon – and I can't remember what demon, sorry – and were then fed the heart of that demon's buddy by your then-boyfriend, Angel."

"My pig."

"Mr. Gordo."

"Why did Willow break up with you when you were five?"

"I stole her Barbie."

"What base did you get to with Cordelia?"

"I never told you," he said, smiling. "But third."

She knelt down in front of him. "What did you say to me in the Bronze when I was just starting college?"

Xander looked down at her and straight into her eyes. "When it's dark, and I'm all alone, and I'm scared, or freaked out, or whatever, I think, 'What would Buffy do?' You're my hero."

Buffy closed her eyes, and he could see tears leaking from her eyes. "Xander," she whispered.

"Buff," he said. "Could you uncuff me? I'd kind of like to hug you now."

Buffy laughed through her tears, reached behind him, snapped the chain on the cuffs and he immediately swept her up in a huge bear hug, holding her as close as he could. "Okay, sometimes, I think, 'What is Buffy wearing?'" he whispered.

He felt her laughing as he held her in his arms. He put her back down on the floor, and she smiled brightly up at him. "Let's get you out of those cuffs. How did you get here?"

"That is a long and crazy story," he said. "But basically, this isn't our future. This is an alternate dimension, and we hopped over here to bring you back."

"Well, it's not a nice place you've hopped to," she said. "There's a huge demonic presence here, and we're only just starting to push – wait, did you say we?"

Xander grinned.

* * *

"The best of friends," Inara said, rubbing her wrists slightly as she watched Buffy Summers, the Chosen One, crying like a giddy little girl, hugging her friends and refusing to let go of their hands even for a moment.

"This is an historic occasion," Book agreed. "As much as I've read about them, it's sometimes hard to remember how young they are."

Mal stepped up beside him. "Damn. You know, honestly, I still wasn't sure that this whole thing was real, but… once I saw how she responded when you called her Buffy… I mean, that name is something I could never dream up."

"Excuse me, ma'am," said a young man who Mal thought was taking his life in his hands by interrupting this Buffy woman. He looked around the room, and was surprised to find River and Jayne leaning against a wall together. Zoë was inspecting their weapons, making sure they hadn't been tampered with.

"Everybody gear up," Buffy said, her tears now dry and her face hard again. Xander headed over to the table where their weapons were laid out and picked up his sword, his hatchet and his gun.

"Where are we going?" Mal asked, stepping up.

Buffy regarded them warily, and Xander placed his hand on her shoulder. "They're good people, Buff. If they can help, we should let them."

Buffy nodded. "Saddle up," she said. "We'll fill you in on the way."

* * *

They piled into a small school bus with windows that were, with the exception of the windshield, blacked out. They were in the first of a line of three buses.

"How do you guys keep these things running?" Xander asked.

Buffy shook her head. "No idea. They must have a wizard of a mechanic or something, but they keep them going."

"So what's this situation we're headed into?" Mal asked.

Buffy nodded. "The demons are making a large push against our forces about twenty miles west of our base. We've got people on the ground who are holding them off, but they don't seem to be able to push them back. The demons' attacks have grown frenzied in the past few weeks, and we're not really sure why. Luckily, they haven't been able to push us back, either."

She pulled out a rough, hand drawn map and started pointing.

"This area here is where our forces are. They're a little more spread out than we'd like, but they're holding. The demons came in from the northwest in huge numbers, and are throwing themselves against our defenses."

"What defenses?" Mal asked.

"We have two walls up at all times," Buffy said, "about half a mile apart. For every half-mile we take, we leapfrog the back wall, then reinforce. Obviously, we're also constantly extending the wall, until we reach a city. When that's done, we sweep the city. Clear it out completely, and reinforce it until the wall can be extended around it. We're approaching D.C. now, and should be there by the end of the month."

"What's the terrain we're facing?" Zoë asked.

"Largely forest land," she said. "It's not the dense forest of a jungle, but it's definitely largely wooded. There are a lot of areas where it's easy to get ambushed, but also a lot of clearings."

"What kind of demons?" Xander asked

Buffy shook her head. "All kinds. They used to split up and attack by faction, but apparently since pretty soon after I showed up, they've abandoned that and are now just attacking together. Polgaras, Fyarls, vampires, hell hounds, Nahdreh, Dursler beasts, Grimslaws, Howlers, Yarbney… I even killed another Toth, though there don't seem to be a lot of them around. But yeah, it's a cornucopia, as Giles would say. How…"

"Giles is fine," Willow assured her. "So is Dawn. And Tara and Anya. And even, God help us, Spike."

Buffy nodded and took a deep breath.

"Uh, one more thing," Xander said.

"What?"

Xander smiled. "I'm engaged."

Buffy's eyes bugged out. "Xander! Oh my god!" She leapt at him and threw her arms around his neck. "Congratulations! When is the wedding?"

"Haven't set a date," he said. "Haven't set anything except that it's happening."

"Oh my god, that's so great," she said. "And a little weird."

Xander nodded. "And a little weird. But what have I done that wasn't?"

"Fair enough," she said. A little red light began blinking at the front of the bus. "We're almost there. Arm yourselves."

Everybody strapped on their gear.

"Hey, Willow," Buffy said as she pulled on her sword belt. "Were you always this… glowy?"

Willow sighed. "Apparently not. Everybody's been commenting."

"And is everything okay with that?" Buffy asked. "I don't remember where glowyness is on my chart of magically mystical mumbo jumbo."

"It's fine," Willow said with a sly smile. "It's all fine."

A minute later, the bus stopped and they all got out.

"I don't see any fighting," Mal said, looking at the large wooden wall in front of them. It was maybe twelve feet high and made of huge shaved logs that were sharpened to points at the top.

"This is the back wall," Buffy said. "We've still got half a mile to the outer wall, but the buses can't get through. And after that, we've still got about another half mile until we come to the fight. We're going to be coming up from behind the demons and trying to catch them in crossfire."

Around them, about sixty more people were strapping on weapons and armor.

Buffy started moving to the left, towards what looked like the outline of a door. "I hope you guys brought your running shoes," she said. She flung the door open and started running. The other troops just shook their heads and followed as best they could.

"Damn," said Mal. "Guess we better get on, then."

The crew from Serenity started running, and River quickly outpaced them, leaving them behind and passing the troops as well.

"Why do I suddenly feel inadequate?" Mal asked as they ran.

"Because you just got beat by two girls who weigh less combined than you do," Xander said. "Don't worry. You get used to it."

Xander glanced to his right and saw Willow barely keeping up.

"You gonna make it?" he asked.

In response, her feet lifted off the ground and she shot forward.

Xander laughed. "Showoff."

A few minutes later, they had stopped at the base of a hill, on the other side of which they could hear the battle.

"Our people are holding them off," their radio man said, "but in about the last ten minutes they've had to engage hand-to-hand, so we're not going to be able to use ranged weapons."

To a man, the troops started abandoning their guns and crossbows.

"Give us five minutes," Buffy said to a young man who appeared to be somewhat in charge. "We'll circle around to the other side and catch the demons in a pincer. Give me the flare."

The young man handed her the flare gun. "Just this group, ma'am?"

"We'll be fine. Five minutes."

She signaled to the Serenity crew to follow, then took off into the forest.

"Keepin' up, Shepherd?" Mal asked.

"I'll be fine," Book said, panting. "Just take care of yourself."

Mal nodded, and a few minutes later they were on the other side of the battle.

"Everyone here?" Buffy asked. Xander did a quick head count and nodded.

"Okay," Buffy said. "Now for most of you, this is going to be unlike any fight you've ever been in. Remember to stay close together. If something doesn't look human, kill it."

She turned to River. "Are you ready for this?"

River looked at her. "Are you?"

Buffy laughed. "Okay," she said. "Let's do this." She lifted the flare gun toward the sky and fired, then dropped the gun and the whole group charged.

* * *

Mal watched in stunned awe as Xander, Buffy and Willow moved through the demons. At first he had concentrated on River, on keeping her safe. He had, after all, promised the doctor he'd take care of her. But she seemed perfectly capable of taking care of herself, and Mal more than once found himself almost overwhelmed by the sheer insanity of the scene before him. Men, human men, were fighting real, actual _demons_.

It seemed like there should have been some sort of announcement.

In any event, Mal had turned from watching River's back to watching his own, and in doing so had gotten turned around and seen his newest acquaintances in action. And what a sight it was. They each had a role, they each knew it and played it to almost to perfection.

Willow was the firepower. Long distance. She picked off demons like a sniper, only a sniper who shot fire and magic and all sorts of craziness instead of bullets. As he watched, a little ball of light left each of her hands. One of the balls zoomed straight ahead, plowing into and through the chest of a demon that was rushing her. The demon fell dead in its tracks. The other ball circled around her defensively, waiting for something to approach. As Mal turned his head to see more action, a blast of flame shot from Willow's hand and incinerated a couple of demons that were approaching Buffy and Xander.

Buffy and Xander, who were taking on another group of demons on their own. Xander was doing little more than holding the demons off, keeping them away from Buffy's back. Buffy was, as quickly as she could, dispatching the demons in front of her. Each demon was a battle in and of itself, but her speed and power were unlike anything he'd ever seen.

His eyes unable to turn, Mal saw Buffy decapitate one demon and eviscerate another in the space of a few seconds. Without a word, she and Xander moved in unison. He allowed another demon entry into the melee and stepped aside so Buffy could kill it as he shifted to continue holding back the others. Hold and attack. Hold and attack. Over and over until the group was gone, and then they moved on to a new group.

And they hadn't seen each other in months.

Mal shook his head, turned and blasted an approaching demon in the face with his pistol, and thought not for the first time that if he was going to keep doing this, he needed to learn how to use weapon that didn't need reloading.

"It's a thing o' beauty!" Jayne said, nodding at the new battle Buffy, Xander and Willow had engaged themselves in.

"It's a well-oiled machine," Book said. "A knowledge of each other gained through years of working and fighting together, and a complete trust that each member will hold up their end of the deal."

The Serenity crew cleared an area around them, and watched the three best friends at work. Willow sent a wave of flame towards the group surrounding Buffy and Xander. At the last possible second, Buffy handed her axe to Xander, grabbed him by his shoulders and jumped the two of them out of the way of the fire. They landed together, and immediately started finishing off the demons that hadn't completely died yet, as Willow erected a wall of solid, shimmering air around them to keep them, for the moment, safe.

Zoë shook her head. "Wow."

----------

End Chapter 17


	19. Chapter 18

Title: From Here to Serenity  
Author: Bastard Snow  
Rating: PG-13

Summary: Buffy's fall through Glory's portal took her somewhere nobody had ever imagined. Now, it's up to Willow and Xander to get her back.

Disclaimer: I don't own either of these.

Author's Notes: Much, much thanks to Drake, without whom this story would not exist. Also, obviously, thanks to Joss Whedon for coming up with two universes that have nothing to do with each other. Makes it a challenge to make them have everything to do with each other.

Feedback: Yes, please!

* * *

"Wow." 

Giles turned and looked at Spike, who was sitting on top of a tombstone. "Wow?"

Spike took a drag from his cigarette. "That looked really painful."

Giles frowned and turned to see Tara helping Jonathan to his feet after having accidentally planted her foot solidly into his ribcage after he fell.

"Look out!" Jonathan yelled. He rolled Tara away from the vampire that had appeared directly behind her, and kicked out at it with his foot as he did so. The vampire caught his foot and twisted, sending Jonathan spinning to the ground. Tara raised one hand and placed an invisible barrier between the vampire and the two of them. The vampire pounded on the wall, and Tara winced with every hit.

The wall, however, gave Jonathan time to recover. He reached the stake he had dropped when he fell, and when he was in position, he tapped Tara's hand. She released the barrier, and Jonathan lunged for the vamp.

Giles and Spike both winced as Jonathan stabbed the vampire on the wrong side of the chest. The vamp howled in pain as Jonathan was forced to pull the stake out and slam it back into the vampire again, this time dusting it.

As he helped Tara to her feet, another vampire ran towards them with Faith hot on its tail. Tara held out her hand and muttered a few words. The vamp bounced off an invisible wall. Faith caught the vampire, but it was obvious since her hands were empty and her clothing left little enough to the imagination that she was without a stake. At an opportune moment, Jonathan stepped up and tossed Faith his stake. She snatched it from the air and slammed it home into the vamp's heart.

"Hm," said Giles, as the three youths decided to stick together to finish the patrol of the cemetery.

"That… wasn't bloody horrible," Spike said. It was as close to a compliment as he'd come the entire night.

"There's potential, I think," Giles said.

Spike nodded. "They weren't totally incompetent. 'Specially the Slayer Mark II."

"Spike, please don't call her that," Giles said. "She has enough to overcome as it is."

Spike shrugged. "Glinda and the nerd aren't used to this yet."

"No," Giles said. "What they lack in experience and – as yet – ability, they attempt to make up for in enthusiasm, though."

"Not enough, though."

"Not yet, no," Giles agreed. "But that can be fixed. Tell me, Spike –"

"Not on your life, Watcher," he said.

"I haven't even asked you anything!" Giles protested.

"Doesn't matter. I know what you're going to ask. You want me to train with the Scooby Lites. Not a chance."

"I'll give you a jar of burba weed and one hundred dollars a week."

"Done," Spike said.

They both nodded as if the other had given in far too easily.

"Not sure how much I can do with the tyke though," Spike said. "I don't think he's going to be much for the field action."

"You may be right," Giles said. "But he should nevertheless be trained as much as can be. The better they can work together, the better we can protect the town until the others return."

Spike was silent for a moment. "You really think they'll pull this off?"

"If anyone can, they can," Giles said.

Spike nodded and tossed his cigarette to the ground and smashed it dead with his heel. "Gonna go check on the 'bit," he said.

"Start the training tomorrow, at the Magic Box?" Giles asked.

"Not before four," Spike said. "I've got my stories to watch."

Giles rolled his eyes, but nodded. "I'll make sure they're there."

He watched Spike walk away for a moment before heading off to find the others. Tomorrow would be an interesting day.

* * *

Jonathan raised a hand. "Um, I have a question," he said.

"What's that?" Spike asked.

"Well, aren't you supposed to be, you know… evil?"

"And are you always doing what you're supposed to?" Spike asked. "I assume your mother approves of you doing bits o' magic and fighting demons? That reality-shifting spell last year, that was doing what you're 'supposed' to?"

Jonathan frowned. "No, I suppose not," he said.

"Well then," Spike said.

"He's got a chip," Tara said. "I-in his head. He can't hurt, um, people."

"So he's what?" Faith asked. "Neutered?"

Spike snarled at her. She flicked him off.

"So, he can't hurt _anybody_?" Jonathan asked.

"I can, too. Just… not anybody human," Spike said, resignedly. "Can beat sodding demons from here 'til next Tuesday, but even so much as try to hurt a human and I get a headache the size of Rupert's dry streak."

Faith snorted. "Damn."

"Look, are we going to do this or what?" Spike said. "You kiddies ready for the minor leagues?"

"The what?" Jonathan asked. "Why… are we minor league?"

"Because we're not good enough," Faith said. "That's what they all think, anyway. Not good enough to step in for B and her merry band of misfits."

"No," Tara said, "I'm sure it's not –"

"Actually, that's right. To an extent." They all turned and saw Giles standing in the doorway. "Just came to see how things were going, didn't mean to intrude. But Spike's metaphor, if I understand American sports correctly, is actually quite apt."

"See?" Faith said to Tara. "Never thought I was good enough."

"Quite the contrary actually, Faith," Giles said. "I have never thought you were any less talented as a Slayer than Buffy. Less disciplined, less experienced, less prepared, yes. But not less talented. Which is why the 'minor leagues' is appropriate."

Giles stepped into the training room. "If I understand correctly, the minor leagues are made up of young players who have very much in the way of raw talent, but lack the experience, discipline and instruction required to compete at the highest level. This is very much the case here.

"Last night, Spike and I observed you. You were uncoordinated, getting in each other's way, and generally exhibited poor teamwork. But there were a couple of moments where you connected with each other. Where you overcame your lack of experience, and got the job done, which in the end is what matters. I believe, and Spike believes, though he likely won't admit it, that this group has excellent potential, and that if you train together, you can, in time, achieve the level of synergy that Buffy, Willow and Xander have."

The bell over the front door jingled.

"If you'll excuse me," he said, turning back to the store front, "I believe I have a customer."

"Giles?" Tara said.

"Yes, dear?" Giles said.

"What makes them… why do they work so well together?"

"Trust," Giles said.

"So we should trust each other?" Jonathan asked.

"This type of trust cannot be given. It must be earned."

"What about him?" Faith asked, pointing at Spike. "Should we trust him?"

Giles started to say something, then thought better of it. "I cannot trust him. I've dealt with him too much. But that's a decision you'll have to come to on your own, not one I can make for you. Excuse me."

Giles left the room, and they all looked at each other.

"Right then," Spike said. "Glenda, you and nerdling set up over there, Slayer you're with me."

"Won't this hurt you?" Faith asked.

Spike shook his head. "Not if I don't mean to hurt you. Come on, now, like I showed you. Ready?"

* * *

They trained together for almost a month. Spike would start working with Tara and Jonathan sometime in the late afternoon. Faith would join them after work, and they would train for a few more hours. After a break for dinner, they would meet back up at the Magic Box and go patrolling, occasionally joined by Giles, Anya, or both.

"It's kind of tacky," Anya told Giles one night as they strolled through the cemetery.

"What is?" he asked.

"Creating another Scooby gang," she said, ducking as a demon arm went flying over their heads. "I don't think it will do anything for Buffy's confidence to have another group of well trained demon-killers in her home town."

Giles smiled at her. "Not everything I do is about Buffy, Anya," he said. "Much of it, yes. But I am, at the moment, the only active Watcher. And there is only one Slayer here. Faith needs her own support group. People whom she can lean on when times are hard, and they will be hard."

"So you thought you'd copy the Scoobies?"

"Pardon?" Giles asked.

"Oh come on," she said. "It's so obvious. A slayer, a witch, a normal guy – well, relatively – and a Brit with an in depth knowledge of the occult, and a dark past? They're like a mirror image."

Giles considered for a moment. "Well, they don't have one of you," he said.

"That's because I'm unique," she said proudly.

Giles chuckled. "You are at that." He raised his hands to his mouth to call out to Tara that a vampire was behind her, but the witch spun and called out a word Giles didn't quite catch, trapping the vampire in what appeared to be a magical force field until Faith or Spike was prepared to deal with him.

"They do handle things differently, though," Anya said. "Willow would just have flambéed him. And Jonathan's much more into research than Xander ever was, though not as handy with an axe. And Spike…"

"Doesn't get knocked on the head quite so much?"

"I was trying to think of a tactful way to say that," Anya said, frowning. "Xander asked me to try to be nice while he was away."

"The effort is appreciated," Giles said.

Jonathan huffed and puffed his way up to them. "We think… there's still… a demon hunting here. We'll do another sweep… before packing in."

"Very good," Giles said. He turned to Anya. "Shall I escort you to your car?"

"Please," she said.

The two of them walked together in a comfortable silence until they reached the parking lot. Giles held Anya's door open for her, and closed it for her when she was seated.

Anya rolled down her window. "Giles?"

"Yes?"

"Do you think they're okay?"

Giles frowned. "I'm sure they'll be fine. Faith won't let anything –"

"No," she said. "Not them."

"Oh," Giles said. "I imagine they are. They're very resourceful."

"I miss Xander," she said. "And Willow and Buffy, too."

Giles smiled. "Yes. So do I."

Anya nodded. "Well, good night."

Giles nodded at her, and watched as she drove off, then got in his own car and headed home.

* * *

The door swung open.

"Hello," Giles said.

"Hi," Tara said. "Um, is Faith here?"

Giles smiled. "Certainly." He stepped aside and allowed Tara entry into the apartment. "She's just back in her room."

Tara nodded, tucked her hair behind her ear and headed back to Faith's room, and knocked on the bedroom door.

"Yeah," Faith called. Tara swung the door open and saw Faith lying on the bed reading a book called _Angels and Demons_.

"Is that any good?" Tara asked. Faith looked up at Tara, the down at the book.

Faith shook her head. "Not really. What's up? I thought we had the day off from training."

Tara nodded. "We do. Jonathan and I thought – well, we were wondering if you wanted to go to a movie with us."

Faith looked surprised. "Oh. Um. What movie?"

"Well, I didn't really have an opinion, but Jonathan says we should see either… _Tomb Raider_ or _The Fast and The Furious_."

"What are they about?" Faith asked.

Tara smiled. "I'm not too sure. I think one's based on a video game, and the other's… about cars?"

"Hm. Not too interested in video games."

"We can see the car movie," Tara said. "I think… Xander said video game movies don't have a great history. So do you want to come?"

Faith was silent for a moment. She seemed, from Tara's eye, to be weighing the pros and cons.

"I'll buy popcorn," Tara said.

Faith grinned. "Sold."

* * *

Faith, Tara and Jonathan stepped out of the movie theater. None of them had spoken a word since the movie had ended, and from Jonathan's point of view, they all seemed to be grappling with what they'd just witnessed.

"It is possible," Jonathan said, "that Paul Walker is the worst actor alive today."

"At least the cars were pretty?" Tara said, trying to see the silver lining. "Mostly."

"So, I think we can blame this one on me," Faith said. "I really don't see how the Tomb… thing could have been worse than that. I mean… that was really bad."

"It was," Jonathan said. "Really bad."

"Next time we'll do better?" Tara suggested.

Faith nodded. "Yeah. Well, we'd better. Cuz if this shit keeps up, it's gonna get tired real quick."

Jonathan and Tara looked at each other. "So," Tara said, "you're interested in doing this again?"

Faith shrugged. "When I'm not working, and it's day time, there's not a whole hell of a lot to do in this town."

"Well," Jonathan said, "it's not a ringing endorsement… but I think we'll take it."

Tara nodded and smiled.

"So what are you guys up to now?" Faith asked.

"I don't think we had plans," Tara said.

Jonathan glanced at his watch. "We could get dinner," he said. "It's a little early, but… if you're interested…"

Faith looked at them, thought about it for a minute, and shrugged. "Yeah," she said. "I could eat."

----------

End Chapter 18


	20. Chapter 19

Title: From Here to Serenity

Author: Bastard Snow

Rating: PG-13

Summary: Buffy's fall through Glory's portal took her somewhere nobody had ever imagined. Now, it's up to Willow and Xander to get her back.

Disclaimer: I don't own either of these.

Author's Notes: Much, much thanks to Drake, without whom this story would not exist. Also, obviously, thanks to Joss Whedon for coming up with two universes that have nothing to do with each other. Makes it a challenge to make them have everything to do with each other.

Feedback: Yes, please!

* * *

Xander bit into a turkey leg, and the juice dribbled down his chin. "This is delicious. Do you guys eat like this after every fight?"

Buffy shook her head and swallowed a bite of mashed sweet potatoes. "About every two weeks," she said. "There's a small group of magic adepts outside of Caracas, and they teleport us in some food twice a month."

"Why only twice a month?" Kaylee asked through a mouthful of peas.

"There's a lot of people to resupply," Buffy said. "And Venezuela only has so much food. And… they're not that strong. They can only send out shipments about every four days, and preservatives other than salt aren't really available."

"Why not use other methods of shipping?" Mal asked.

"They aren't available to us," said Buffy, shrugging. "Demons in the water will take out ships, and we don't have the gas or expertise to fly. And over land really isn't an option in the Northern Hemisphere."

"Well that shuttle we brought down appears to have power," Xander said.

"Probably a fusion engine," Book said. "According to my histories, they were fairly ubiquitous around the time the fleet left Earth."

"Fleet?" Buffy asked through a mouthful of mashed potatoes.

"The fleet that took people out into the stars," Book said.

Buffy looked confused.

"It's a whole thing," Xander said, "we can explain it later."

Buffy nodded. "Fair enough. So how long have you guys been in this um… dimension?"

"About three weeks," Willow said. "It took us some time to figure out how money worked, and to trade enough stuff from Earth to get passage on a ship."

Buffy looked at Mal. "So you agreed to fly them out here for money?"

"Not exactly," he said. "I was a little shanghaied in my own boat."

"That's hardly fair, Mal," Inara said. "You were promised compensation."

"Sure, for the chance at disappearing forever."

"We're here, though," Jayne said. "Ain't nothin' disappeared about us."

"Disappearing?" Buffy asked.

"Earth was lost," Xander explained. "And most people who went to find it either disappeared or came back broke. Like the Bermuda Triangle or something."

Buffy nodded in understanding.

"So what did you promise them?" she asked.

"All the expensive stuff we brought with us from home," he said. "And some old stuff from here."

Buffy snorted. "We can do better than that."

"We can?" Xander asked.

"You can?" Mal asked.

"There are a lot of things here that we can't use," Buffy said. "At all. Because we don't have the infrastructure."

"Like what things?" Mal asked.

Buffy shrugged. "All sorts of technical stuff. Over at Johns Hopkins, there are rooms full of computers that nobody can use. Cars that don't run. Hell, if your ship has room, there's a bunch of trains downtown that don't run anymore."

"Trains," Mal said. "Think that might be a bit big for us. A car or two, maybe…"

"Oh," said Buffy. "And let's not forget the toys."

Xander raised an eyebrow. "Toys?"

* * *

The lights didn't work, but the crew from Serenity had brought their own flashlights. They roamed the aisles haphazardly, looking at anything that caught their eye. Jayne found the GI Joes and toy guns, Book found games like Scrabble, Pictionary and Risk. Inara, initially drawn to the Barbie dolls, discarded them and instead found some bicycles to ride around on. 

Zoë and Mal spent their time looking at the various video game consoles and the games that went along with them, but it was River who found the gold mine.

"I don't get it," Jayne said, looking at the stacks and stacks of faded boxes. "They're just little blocks?"

"Little blocks that connect to each other," Mal said, looking over the… whatever it was that River was putting together. "Can you imagine how much this stuff would sell for? Kids could pay with this for hours. Hell, adults could play with this for hours. You buy this stuff, you can build your dreams out of little plastic blocks," he said. He bent down and picked up a small Lego man. "With little plastic people to live in them."

Mal turned to Geoffrey, the man with an eerily long neck who Buffy had sent with them. "We can take anything we want?"

"That's what she said," Geoffrey told him.

"I don't suppose you'll help carry?" Mal asked.

Geoffrey stared at him for a moment, then walked away. He came back about two minutes later pushing a big plastic basket on wheels. Mal stared at the thing for a moment, then looked back at Geoffrey.

"There more of these things?"

* * *

Willow, Xander and Buffy lay on the top of the building that housed Buffy's 'command center,' and stared up at the stars.

"What's it like up there?" Buffy asked. She was lying between her two best friends, her arms looped through theirs, holding them close as if they would disappear if she let go.

"Surprisingly boring, at first," Xander said. "Space travel is so normal for them. It took us a while to realize how… incredible it was. But when we did…"

"We just stood there," Willow said. "Looking at the stars. Would have stood there longer, but we had things to do. But it was… amazing."

Buffy sighed. "I want to do that someday. Go out in the stars. Go on adventures with you guys."

"You don't get adventures here?" Xander asked.

Buffy shrugged. "It's not the same. I'm not going anywhere. I fell out of the sky in New York, and I've been fighting ever since. You guys got to fly around the galaxy in a spaceship. That's the kind of adventuring I want to do. The kind where you're not always fighting."

"Maybe when we get home," Willow said. "We can all go on a road trip or something. Take a break."

"Hey, yeah," said Xander. "I think I've still got all my maps. Maybe we'll even make it past Oxnard."

"And if we don't, we can call for ride, so we don't stay a few hours away for months without anybody knowing," Willow said.

"Fair enough," said Xander.

Buffy stayed silent, but held their arms tighter. Willow and Xander glanced at each other.

"What?" Willow asked.

Buffy shook her head. "Nothing. It's not important right now. I just want to be with you guys. I've missed you so much."

Willow and Xander inched closer to her, and she took comfort in their warmth and their presence. They lay there for hours, as Willow and Xander caught her up on all the news from back home; Dawn was okay, but acting out a little, largely because, they thought, they couldn't spend a lot of time with her; Giles was doing well, research and training as always, and spending more time keeping up with the Magic Box; Anya was earning money and making wedding plans; Tara pretty much tried to keep everyone sane.

The big news, of course, was Faith's release from prison, and just how that had come about. As much as Buffy didn't like – really, really didn't like Faith, Sunnydale needed a Slayer. And when a God told you to get one, well… there wasn't a lot of room for argument.

Then it was Buffy's turn.

"Well, like I said, I fell out of the sky into New York, which looks nothing like I imagined it looking," she said.

"Five hundred years will do that, I imagine," said Xander.

Buffy nodded. "It was not pretty. Skyscrapers had fallen, the roads were torn up, bridges falling down. Not good. Lucky me, I managed to fall out of the sky right near a group of people patrolling from a resistance base in the Central Park Zoo. They picked me up, tied me up and held me hostage until they realized that I was actually human, or at the very least on their side."

"How'd they figure that out?" Willow asked.

"I didn't die from sunlight or holy water, and when they were raided by demons I escaped from my 'cell' and killed them. The demons, not the people."

"Good choice," said Xander.

"Thank you. Anyway, they figured I could be trusted after that, and I kind of… took over the fighting side of things pretty quickly. They had already started to push back, to gain some ground here on the East coast. I got shipped down here to Baltimore, where I've been for… a couple months, I guess."

"And how's that been going?" Willow asked.

"Not great by my standards," she said. "But by the standards of everyone involved here, it's been going swimmingly."

"Did you ever wonder how the term swimmingly came around?" Xander asked. "I mean, it's like smoothly, or really well, right? So did somebody just… really like swimming? I mean, there are a lot of hazards involved with swimming. Drowning. Stomach aches. Cramps."

"Shark attacks," said Buffy.

"Frogs," said Willow.

"Aquatic demons," Buffy added.

"And we have a winner," said Xander. "So what's the deal with that?"

Buffy and Xander both turned to Willow. She looked offended. "What? I don't know everything, guys. I'm not Giles."

They looked back up at the stars. "Do you guys think one of your friends would take me up into space?" Buffy asked after a few minutes.

"Have to ask them," Xander said. "But honestly, I don't see why not."

"In fact," said Willow, "it couldn't hurt if we brought down that other shuttle. It sounds like the people here could really use it."

"We could," Buffy said. "It would help so much with supplies, safety, even just reconnaissance. Hell, if all we did was use them to evacuate injured people, it could save lives."

"Well I think we all agree that Earth should be in the hands of humans," said Xander. "And anything we can do, before we leave, to help these guys take it back is something I'm in favor of."

Buffy winced.

"Yeah," Willow said.

Buffy pulled them closer still. "I love you guys," she said.

"Me too," said Willow.

"Yeah," said Xander. "I love you guys, too."

* * *

"Oh my God, this is like the best thing ever," Buffy said. She was seated next to Mal on the shuttle, with Xander and Willow standing behind them. She was nearly bouncing, she was so excited. She kept turning back to look at Xander and Willow, grinning like she was nine and had just been given a pony.

"It's pretty fantastic," Willow said.

"We should be docking in about five minutes," Mal said. Buffy was looking away from the station and out into space, looking at the stars.

"You guys have been out there," she said.

"We have," said Willow.

Buffy shook her head. "Man. That's incredible. How come we're not floating around?"

"Artificial gravity," Mal said. "Been around for ages."

"How does it work?" Xander asked.

Mal shook his head. "No idea. But it does, and we are grateful for it."

A few amusing minutes of Buffy's excitement later and they docked with the station. They went back into the cabin of the shuttle, where Zoë was waiting for them.

"What's the situation?" Mal asked.

"Gauge says it's breathable. Seems the scrubbers worked," she said.

"That's… a surprise," Mal said.

"But a good one," said Xander.

"Still, best be careful. Gauge could be wrong, though I don't know why it would be." He turned to Willow. "If you'll agree to hold the air in here, I'll put on a suit and check out the other side of the airlock."

Willow nodded, and a few minutes later Mal stepped into the space station and walked toward the back of the chamber. He checked his air quality indicator, tapped it twice, then held up a thumb. He raised his hand to his helmet, and opened the seal on his helmet.

Xander jumped as Mal started gasping and clutching at his throat. He and Buffy made to run out and pull him back into the shuttle, but Zoë held up a hand and shook her head.

"But he's –" Buffy started.

"No," said Zoë, as Mal fell to the ground, his body stiff and his helmet clanking on the ground. "You'll only encourage him."

"We'll what?" Xander asked. "But he's –"

Zoë shook her head. "We're not falling for it, sir," she yelled into the station. "Nobody thinks that you're funny."

Mal remained still. Zoë rolled her eyes and stepped out into the airlock. Nothing happened to her. She walked over to the captain, knelt down and rolled him over.

"You need to laugh more," he said.

"You need to be funnier."

Buffy stepped out into the space station, followed closely by Willow and Xander. She looked around. "It smells weird."

"The air's been in here for hundreds of years, and just started to get clean yesterday," Willow said. "It's amazing we can even breathe it."

"Okay," Mal said. Zoë had helped him up off the deck, and he was stripping out of the vacuum suit. "Well, we're not just here to sightsee. Xander, you and Zoë go get the weapons. Red, you check out the control room, see if there's anything else here can be used to help out those down on the planet."

"What about us?" Buffy asked.

"Well," he said, smiling, "I reckon' we get to go exploring."

* * *

The emptiness of the space station was creepy, Buffy decided. All of the cabins were empty. As weird as it sounded, it would have been less creepy if they'd found skeletons, or clothes, or a picture, or even a sink with a dish in it. But everything was in its place. There were no indications that anyone had ever been there.

But the truth was, there were trinkets. Keepsakes. Not anything personal, but things that people had used. There were bowls, there were pots and pans, there were linen closets and bathroom soap. Small things, but the fact that they were from 'Earth-That-Was' would make the extremely valuable to collectors back out in 'the 'Verse,' as Mal called it.

"So," Mal said after they'd been at it a while.

"So?" she said.

"You're not planning to go back with them."

"What?" she asked, whipping her head around to look at him.

"Well, you're not," he said. "Are you?"

She looked away from him. "I can't abandon these people," she said. "I have responsibilities here."

"And you don't back home with them?" he asked. "The people who travelled through dimensions and were ready to steal a spaceship full o' armed people, figure out how space travel works and take their best shot at navigating, then take on a planet full of demons to get you back. There's no responsibilities there?"

Buffy frowned. "I know," she said. "It's horrible. I hate it. But I can't leave."

"Because they need you."

"They both need me," she said. "And as much as being needed sounds nice, being needed by a group of people who are relying on you for their survival, and a group of people who love you, and who you love, and not being able to be with both of them… it's one of the worst things ever."

They stepped into a common room between some of the cabins, and he kicked out a chair for her then sat down on one of his own. "So how do you choose?" he asked.

"Instincts," she said. "Faith."

"In God?"

Buffy chuckled. "No. Faith is a Slayer."

"Like you and River?"

"Not like me," she said immediately. She smiled at him and shook her head. "I mean, yes, technically. But we're very different people."

"You don't like this Faith person."

"Not even a little. There was a time we were close, but…"

"But?" Mal asked.

"But she tried to kill me and my friends and my lover."

Mal nodded. "That'll cause a rift, sure enough."

"Anyway, she was in prison, but she's not anymore. And the thing that my friends need more than anything is a Slayer. Faith is a Slayer. The people here don't have one other than me. So I stay."

"That simple."

"Simple, yes," Buffy said. She took a deep breath. "Easy, no."

"And what about River?" Mal asked. "She's a Slayer, same as you."

Buffy smiled. "Captain Reynolds, we both know that's not true. River may be a Slayer, but she's also not what you'd call particularly together. She would be – probably will be – a great warrior. But these people need a leader. And she isn't one."

"How are you going to tell your friends?"

"I have no idea," she said. "They're going to be angry."

"It happens, I'd say they have a right."

"I know," she said, her eyes watering. "They're going to hate me. They're going to think I'm a horrible person, and a horrible friend. And I am a bad friend. I have been… for longer than I'd care to admit. But I know my responsibility, and as long as the people here need my help, I have to give it. And unless you've got an army hidden in your coat pocket, they're going to need me here for a long time."

Mal checked his pocket. "Sorry," he said. "All out of armies."

Zoë's voice came over his comlink. "Captain."

"Yeah?" Mal asked into the radio.

"We're just about ready to go here. And about ten minutes until the next shuttle arrives."

"Okay," Mal said. "Tell you what, you and whoever wants to go on. We'll bring this stuff down on the next shuttle, and catch up with you."

"Yes, sir," she said. There was a moment of silence. "These two are going to wait."

"Understood," Mal said. "Safe flying."

"You too, sir."

Mal looked at Buffy. "Need a minute?"

Buffy shook her head. She'd held herself together through harder things. She'd keep it together until she needed to tell her friends that all of their hard work, all that they'd risked; money, jobs, relationships, their very lives… was all for nothing.

She just hoped they wouldn't hate her.

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End Chapter 19


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